Las Vegas, the city of gambling, bright lights, busy casinos and a well-known football team, will host the University of Utah’s football team in two weeks.
The game is very important for the U team?s standing, and in order to increase enthusiasm for the game and stock the stands, the Associated Students of the University of Utah Freshman Council is planning a trip to Las Vegas.
“It’s not just a freshman thing,” said Landon Huber, Freshman Council vice president over activities, who initially thought up the idea. Of the 40 to 50 people already signed up, there is a good mix of student ages, according to Huber.
The buses will leave the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 2 and return sometime Sunday. The $50 tab for the trip includes the bus ride, accommodations for two nights and?the council hopes?tickets to the game.
“Nobody’s going to be able to go to Vegas this cheap,” Huber said.
The trip?s planners called about 30 hotels and a few bus services in order to get the best prices for students. According to Huber, the hotel they are staying in gave them that price for publicity reasons.
“They just renovated,” he said. “[The hotel official] just wanted to show off her hotel.”
The U Athletics Department is trying to get discounted tickets for the students going on the trip.
“We’re trying to make it affordable enough for students,” said Marc Amicone, assistant athletics director for marketing. “We always try to help our students out as best as we can.”
Although Amicone has not yet been able to speak with UNLV, he thinks that he should be able to get tickets for a reduced price.
“They want as many students as they can get,” Huber said. “UNLV is a good team. It’s a huge game in the Mountain West Conference.”
The U football team is undefeated in Mountain West Conference games and tied for first place with Brigham Young University. According to Amicone, a good performance in Las Vegas is also important in getting bowl bids.
“Each game is important,” Amicone said. “The support helps them play better.”
Huber, who organized the trip to support the Utes, also thinks crowd participation is important at away games.
“The influence of the crowd is huge,” he said. “When you’re at an away game and you do something good, it’s silent.”
According to Dave Gray, who helped with the initial plans of the trip, different organizations have tried to get students to away games before.
“The athletics department has been trying to put something like this together for a long time,” he said.
The ASUU-organized trip to Las Vegas is not the only student group going to Las Vegas for some football. According to Jay Hart, ASUU chief of staff, about 500 students go with other organizations or groups of friends.
Students interested in going to Las Vegas with this group need to sign up and pay at the ASUU office by Friday.
“We’re looking for anyone who wants to go,” Huber said.