Fireworks, family fun set for holiday at local venues
Declare your independence from holiday traffic and fuel prices this week by staying in town to attend a sports event that provides pyrotechnic bombs bursting in air.
Get an early start to Fourth of July by spending Tuesday night at Cashman Field for a 51s game, or travel 10 miles north on Las Vegas Boulevard to watch stock-car racing and added attractions at the Bullring.
If you don’t like those options, a $120,000 professional dart tournament will take place through Friday in a ballroom at Mandalay Bay.
But a pair of $25 admission tickets to watch darts instead of mortar-launched packages of exploding colors nearly covers the cost for a family of four to attend the baseball game or races.
The track is enhancing its show with Monster Trucks, high-flying freestyle Quad daredevils and a fire-breathing Jet Dragster that will barbecue a car.
And each will feature fireworks.
A 51s outfielder rarely might crash into the outfield wall, but you can bank on at least one race car crashing into the concrete barrier surrounding the three-eighths-mile paved oval track.
The 51s and Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Bullring provide affordable sports entertainment regularly but use the eve of Independence Day for added sparkle on their schedules.
The 51s players are one step from making the parent Los Angeles Dodgers; Bullring racers are amateurs, though a few have potential and aspirations for advancing to NASCAR’s major leagues.
Kyle Busch, 22, got his start at the Bullring, and the current Cup star is scheduled to be at his hometown track to compete in the Bullring’s premier Super Late Models division of its NASCAR Weekly Racing Series.
"It’s what I love to do and the reason why I wake up every morning," Busch said of why he plans to spend a precious day off racing for fun instead of money.
51s general manager Don Logan said his team has featured fireworks July 3 in nearly each of its 25 years.
He said the tradition of lighting the skies a day early began in the 1980s when the Clark County Fire Department used a gigantic fireworks show at the Silver Bowl (now Sam Boyd Stadium) as a fundraiser and it would draw about 30,000 on Independence Day.
"We never wanted to go against that event," Logan said. "A lot of people in this area get off midday on (July 3), and it’s become one of our biggest crowds all year. There’s just something about baseball and fireworks that people love."
He said about 10,000 are expected Tuesday, and most seats have been sold. It won’t sell out, though. Cashman plans to open grassy knolls adjacent to outfield foul lines for the annual overflow crowd.
The Bullring expects a near-capacity crowd of 5,000 and has sold all spaces in its track-side, drive-in Stockyard viewing section, which wraps from the third to fourth turn.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Paul Wichers began taking his 6-year-old to the Bullring a few months ago and said June 23 he might return for Tuesday’s event.
"I just started coming out recently. It’s one of the cheapest things in the city to do with kids," he said after holding his son up to a misting fan.
Value is a common link between the stadiums. Ticket prices are raised slightly for the special night: $13 at Cashman and $15 at the Bullring for adults. Kids 6-12 are charged $5, and those younger than 6 are admitted free at the Bullring, while Cashman admits kids under 4 free, but they must sit on adults’ laps.
The racetrack features a $1 food menu, which includes hot dogs, soda, draft beer, candy and popcorn. Other concession food is reasonably priced, and independent vendors offer caramel corn, kettle corn, roasted corn, funnel cakes and soft-serve ice cream.
Cashman hosts events nearly 100 days a year compared to the Bullring’s 20-race schedule, so the ballpark features a more varied menu and more concession stands.
Restrooms at each venue are spotless, bright and have baby-changing stations in the men’s rooms.
Temperatures on Tuesday are forecast to reach 110 degrees in the afternoon, but by the time the baseball game starts at 7:11 p.m. and main event at the track begins at 7, nearly all seats are shaded.
Autographs can be obtained before the game or after racing when the pit area is open to all spectators.
Both shows are expected to conclude by 10 p.m., so both afford plenty of time to rest before another outing on the Fourth of July.
