When it comes to recruiting the blue chip high school athletes, Nevada’s colleges and universities aren’t exactly on a level playing field.

The 6-5 quarterback with three state titles to his name already is being scouted. You can bet a PAC-10 school will get first dibs on that gunslinger. And the monster linebacker who runs the 40 in 4.6? The Big 10 schools will no doubt fight it out for such a game breaker.

While University of Nevada athletics may play long shot in the sweepstakes for hotdog high school athletes, it does have one thing that many blue chip programs drool over: sole ownership of its sports market.

As the only major sports program in town, the Wolf Pack is arguably Northern Nevada’s biggest brand and attracts advertising dollars like USC draws running backs. With Mackay Stadium signage sold out and Lawlor Events Center well on its way, the Silver and Blue is in an envious position when it comes to the green dollars of marketing.

“Right now the Pack is riding high thanks to the last few years of unparalleled success,” says Rollin Lazzarone, owner of Scruples Bar & Grill, an establishment which features free home game shuttles to football and basketball games and a cable advertising campaign that rides the coattails of Wolf Pack sports. “My passion is sports; my business is built around sports,” adds Lazzarone. “The Pack is Northern Nevada sports.”

The business of sports

College athletics (football and basketball in particular) is big business. Witness Fox’s purchase of the BCS Championship series for $350 million — that’s just four games. The tentacles of college athletics reaches deep: From logo wear to fast food, car insurance to video games, it is a marketing juggernaut that rivals the NFL while reaching into deeper environs … like Reno, Nev.

Marketing, advertising, gate revenues, sponsorships and partnerships fuel the Pack’s $18 million annual athletics budget — which can count on a little less than $5 million from the state’s coffers. The gate brings in about $3 million. TV rights, licensing and group sales — another $3 million. The love of the Pack from big time boosters makes up the rest.

“We really have no guaranteed revenue stream,” says Kurt Esser, associate athletic director for marketing and communications at UNR. “We’ve gone out and focused on the media, like ESPN, local TV and radio, while working with the WAC TV and radio network,” he says. “We are augmenting what were once trade agreements with cash. Those trade entities and elements are important, but they weren’t cash. Now we are getting more dollars, and the value of those tickets has certainly gone up.”

Building brand loyalty

Three consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Basketball Tournament appearances, a Western Athletic Conference football championship and the return of local legend Chris Ault have raised the value of the Pack brand. But Esser likes to think there is more than just on-the-field performance, but also brand loyalty and the “event experience” that help the Pack score.

“They all have to be there,” he says. “Marketing is there to reduce the ebbs and flows of the team. We want to make sure people enjoy the game and things around the game. When the team isn’t performing, there is still the event to go to, the fun times and the things that go on.”

Higher profile

Mackay Stadium has added a new Wolf Vision LED screen scoreboard that is two times the size of the previous model. The University also has worked hard to engage the student population and has reached even deeper into the generational bucket with the Pup Club for the pre-teen fan.

This synergy has allowed sales partner Seismic Events to sell out advertising space at Mackay this year, says account executive Natalie Nelson.

“Honestly, this community supports the Pack, its athletic department.” she says. “And a lot of that is that there is nothing else like it in town. There are no 49ers to compete against; we are like the professional sports team.”

Ad space at Mackay tops at $15,000 on the scoreboard, $10,750 on the sidelines. Lawlor signage goes for as much as $12,500, but with twice as many games and about one-third the capacity of the football stadium. The big players at Mackay this year are Wells Fargo, Qdoba Mexican Grill, The Resort at Red Hawk, McDonald’s, Champion Chevrolet and nearly every major resort casino in town. Mackay also brings revenue through luxury boxes — 60 in all — which are usually occupied by a mix of boosters, sponsors, school officials or businesses who want a comfortable nest from which to watch their football team.

License to sell

The Pack marketing goes beyond the event, in an arena that for many colleges and universities is the Holy Grail — licensing. Nevada is part of the The Collegiate Licensing Company’s consortium of 200 schools. It is the oldest and largest collegiate licensing agency in the nation. Along with its colleges, universities, bowl games, athletic conferences, The Heisman Trophy and the NCAA (including the Men’s and Women’s Final Four, the College World Series, and all NCAA Championships), the CLC also created College Colors Day, which coincided with “back to school” and the kick-off of the college football season. College Colors Day also features a football game, and in its first year it was Nevada vs. Fresno State.

The Pack apparel is ranked 75th among the consortium in sales, behind 49th Boise State and even further back from No. 1 Texas. During its NCAA basketball runs, the Pack ranked as high as 64th, according to Esser.

Tapping into the apparel phenomena has been Silver and Blue Outfitters, a Web site that sells Pack swag.

“There is a huge market here from the standpoint that the area is growing and the University plans to double in size,” says co-owner Brad Platt. “So, you have the alumni and then the sports fanatics who just want to tie everything into their team.”

Clothes make the fan

Platt and partner Mark Glowdowski got into the business as an outgrowth of their own fanaticism — operators of the fan blog wolfpackchat.com.

“This is really a grass roots business,” says Platt. “For so many years the only place to get Wolf Pack clothing was at the campus book store, or maybe at J.C. Penney or Sears, but the selection just wasn’t that good. Now we’ve tapped into Adidas, which is good quality [apparel], and we are really seeing more selection.”

Platt, a geothermal engineer by day, bolsters the silverandblueoutfitters.com Web sales with visits to live events at Scruples and Bully’s, all gathering under the Wolf Pack banner, which appears to be growing every day.

“We started our Pack shuttle program about four years ago really just to take care of our customers and the fans who wanted to avoid the parking and traffic at the events,” Lazzarone says. “With the success of the program, it’s really grown. I would say about a third of the business is related to the program. And this goes beyond alumni — specifically with the influx of folks into the area — the Wolf Pack becomes their entertainment outlet wherever they live, and the football and basketball team becomes the home team.”