Knievel, Sky City to catch air time on A&E

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

PUEBLO OF ACOMA — Sky City Casino Hotel and Cibola County will get nationwide recognition May 3, on the Arts & Entertainment Network.

The network will air the Robbie Knievel Sky Jump as part of the Knievel's "Wild Ride Tour."

Knievel jumped 18 Kenworth trucks in an event which virtually brought traffic on Interstate 40 to a standstill as the curious crowded the interstate in attempts to see the wild ride.

"We figure between 10,000 to 15,000 people were there that day," said J.D. Meisner, casino advertising director and director or publicity. The A&E Network will be showing all of Knievel's jumps, but the one at the Sky City Casino Hotel on Oct. 2, 2004, was a jump to remember.

Meisner said it was quite a production. About two weeks before the jump a production crew arrived to film every single detail that goes on before such an event. "They followed me everywhere," Meisner said.

With danger around any turn in a jump like the Sky Jump, the show captures the ultimate reality event. Meisner said the film crew looked for the reality theme.

A week before the jump, Knievel's crew arrived in Cibola County to make sure every detail was completed. The reality of the entire event is a person's life and Knievel's life depends upon the absolute certainty that the take-off ramp is just right, and the landing ramp is just right too.

Long before the jump Meisner put out the word in the print media, television and radio that Evil Knievel's kid, Robbie Knievel, was going to ride his motorcycle up a ramp, jump over 18 Kenworth semi-tractor trucks, land far on the other side of them on a landing ramp and hopefully ride in one piece down the landing ramp with no broken parts dangling.

Because truckers make heavy use of Sky City Casino Hotel, the highway jockeys made use of their citizen band radios getting word out too that hard-living and hard partying Robbie Knievel was going to jump 17 Kenworth Trucks on the parking lot.

People in all makes and forms of transportation, from motorcycles to limos and trucks began to converge on Sky City Casino Hotel by the hundreds.

Meisner said not long before the jump was to take place people began to realize they were not going to get into the parking lot in time to see the jump. Motorists began to just stop their cars on the side of the interstate and walk to the event. Meisner said traffic was blocked for miles in both directions.

The whole thing, from beginning to end, was captured on film for millions of people from one end of the United States to the other to enjoy.

The program will air at 8 p.m. on the Arts & Entertainment Network on May 3.