Reno's reputation as sports town is growing

The Biggest Little City in the World will never catch up with its sister in the desert, but Reno is poised to make some remarkable steps in both participatory and team sports. First, the participatory:

Northern Nevada is high on adventure sports - its nickname is "America's Adventure Place" - and Reno's outlying areas provide a perfect setting for those who like to get outdoors in the summer.

The Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe are perfect for backpacking, camping and hiking. The pine-scented mountain air is a treat to breathe, especially after inversions and dust storms make the air in Las Vegas more visible than we'd like.

Although Southern Nevada has staked a claim to having some of the best golf courses in the country, the northern end of the state begs to differ on bragging rights. Some of the tracts at Lake Tahoe can't be beat with their mountain vistas and many a golfer would gladly spend more time searching for a lost ball in a pine forest when it's 80 degrees than in a desert when it's 110.

Although hunting isn't a pastime for everybody, those who enjoy it swear by the experience offered in Northern Nevada.

For those who enjoy white-water adventure, Reno has an amenity that may be unique to a city of its size - a river course for kayaks in the heart of downtown on the Truckee River. Earlier this month, thousands of people descended on downtown for the Reno River Festival. Downtown merchants say it was a huge success, bringing people who don't normally come to the area into the heart of the city.

In the winter, the hiking trails give way to ski runs. The resorts around Lake Tahoe just completed one of the best ski seasons in years. The skiing is so good that Northern Nevada is making an effort to attract the Winter Olympic Games in 2018.

The major outdoor retailers have taken notice.

Cabela's, the Sidney, Neb.-based outdoor retailer, already has opened a store in Verdi, just west of the city.

Currently under construction in the Legends at Sparks Marina development is the largest Scheels sporting goods store in the nation. The construction of the 250,000-square-foot store is impressive, but not nearly as impressive as what Kansas City-based Red Development has in store for the rest of the 1 million-square-foot complex. A restaurant row featuring a T-Rex franchise where diners will eat amid animatronic dinosaurs is planned, and the Reno area's first new resort in more than a decade is being planned by Las Vegas-based Olympia Gaming, developers of Southern Highlands.

More than 40 tenants have signed on at Legends, including several brands that have made their mark on the Las Vegas Strip, but haven't ventured into Reno yet: Nike, adidas, Banana Republic and Lane Bryant among them.

Red Development wants Scheels to open by the end of September and was scheduled to approach the Sparks Planning Commission and the Sparks City Council about extending construction hours during the summer to see the project opens on time.

A third major sporting goods store is familiar to Las Vegans - a Bass Pro Shops store, similar to the one adjacent to the Silverton in Las Vegas. Station Casinos, the Las Vegas locals giant, which hopes to open a resort or two in Reno, has been talking with Springfield, Mo.-based Bass Pro about tying a store to Station's proposed southern property, planned just off the Mount Rose Highway, the gateway to the closest high country.

While adventure sports are bound to attract an important niche in the tourism market, Reno also is looking to jump into the spectator-sport realm.

When Red Development first put Legends on the drawing board, it included space for a minor-league baseball stadium. The company negotiated with several teams about moving to Northern Nevada, but efforts failed.

But another group liked the idea, just not the venue.

SK Baseball, a partnership involving real estate investors Stuart Katzoff as managing partner, his father Jerry Katzoff and Herb Simon of Simon Properties fame, became involved when it purchased the Tucson Sidewinders, a minor-league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Since moving to Tucson Electric Field, a stadium in the southern part of the city away from some of the main population centers and major thoroughfares, the Sidewinders lost their bite.

The younger Katzoff said a variety of factors contributed to the downturn in the popularity of the team in Tucson - the hot summer days of the southern Arizona desert in the heart of the baseball season; the renowned August monsoon rains that refresh the desert, but wreak havoc on ballparks when precipitation comes with flash-flood force; a steady supply of Major League baseball in spring training that spoiled the locals every March; having a popular Major League franchise just 90 minutes away by car in Phoenix; and, the hard-to-get-to stadium.

When SK Baseball acquired the Sidewinders, executives immediately promised to bring the team to Reno - if they could get a stadium. The city, hungry for a Triple-A franchise after supporting Class A ball for many years, struck deals with SK Baseball and ground was broken on a new 10,000-seat stadium in downtown Reno.

The Reno City Council, acting in its capacity as a redevelopment agency board, arranged a series of land exchanges valued at $11 million with four property owners and formed a Ballpark District financed in part by a rental car tax imposed by the Legislature. The deal required the relocation of a fire station, paid for by SK Baseball.

The $81 million project will incorporate part of the historic railroad Freight House and will be built on eight acres. Other retail amenities are slated.

"Right now, we're just working hard to get the stadium open and ready for play in April 2009," Stuart Katzoff told me in a phone interview. "What we're looking at is building a first-class, state-of-the-art facility for our players."

The Sidewinders are the top farm team for the Diamondbacks and SK Baseball has signed a two-year deal to continue that relationship. Sports Illustrated magazine recently cited the Diamondbacks' farm system as one of the model franchises in professional baseball.

Although it may seem odd that the Diamondbacks would abandon the relative ease of shuttling players between Phoenix and Tucson, Katzoff pointed out that "the 90-minute drive will just turn into a 90-minute flight" from Reno.

Katzoff said the stadium would have 20 to 22 luxury boxes and the outfield would be "landscaped like the Sierra Nevada." The team is expecting annual attendance of 382,000 (5,305 per home game) and it is expected to provide 283 jobs. It's expected to generate 15,364 room nights at local hotels and the ongoing economic effect of the team and stadium is estimated at $19.4 million a year.

It's the Katzoffs' and Simon's first venture into baseball, although they have had professional sports experience with the Indiana Pacers National Basketball Association team. Simon and his Simon Property Group is the genius behind the Forum Shops at Caesars - and that is one of the reasons downtown Reno is so excited about next year's opportunity.

Once the team has been established, Katzoff said, his partners would put together the Phases II and III development of a $150 million entertainment district surrounding the stadium.

Katzoff said 2,000 people already have made reservations to acquire season tickets, which haven't even been priced yet, and the company is in the midst of a contest to name the team. Some of the leading choices to date: the Silver Sox (a tribute to some of the earlier minor league teams that have played in Reno); the Rattlers (alliterative, and a tribute to the parent team); the Rancheros or the Rustlers (also alliterative); the Mustangs or the Bighorns (a tribute to local animal life); the Aces or the Snake Eyes (for the gaming industry); the Rapids (alliterative, and the stadium will be on the Truckee River) and the Sparks (a nod to Reno's sister city).

The local newspaper also has played up the importance of naming the team, citing some of the interesting franchise names that have been used over the years and how they really put the city in the spotlight. Among those: the Las Vegas 51s, which wasn't met with much enthusiasm locally, but became one of the most popular team names in the United States, generating plenty of merchandise sales.

Speaking of the 51s, that team also is looking for a new name since the Stephens Group, which purchased the team last year, isn't too fond of the tribute to Area 51 on the Nevada Test Site.

When the Sidewinders become the Reno Whatevers, they'll be in the same league as the Las Vegas Whatevers. Katzoff is hoping a big-time rivalry will emerge in the same way that UNLV and UNR games have developed over time. He's even proposing some kind of Nevada Cup to go to the team that wins the most games against each other.

Although some may believe that Red Development and the Legends at Sparks Marina lost out with SK's downtown deals, the Sparks group is now looking to build some kind of indoor arena where its stadium site was proposed. Such a facility - think Orleans Arena - could play host to minor-league hockey and/or arena football.

Ray Hagar, who covers the tourism beat for the Reno Gazette-Journal, says it may be profitable for Red Development to have such an arena instead of a baseball stadium.

"If a baseball franchise leaves, you have an empty baseball stadium and you have to find a new team," Hagar said in a taping of "Nevada Newsmakers" in which he invited me on as a guest. "If a hockey team leaves, you have other sports possibilities, and you can even use the venue for big concerts."

Very true.

Could there be an in-state rival to the Las Vegas Wranglers in the future? Who knows? But an ice arena would definitely be a plus to Northern Nevada in its bid for the 2018 Olympic Games.

Reno definitely is making a move in the sports game.