It's somewhat of an apples-and-oranges query. The answers are quite different when one is talking about conventions and arena events -- the former are on the rise in Las Vegas and the hospitality industry is playing catch-up. MGM Resorts International (of whom more later), according to its investor calls, tends to run ahead of schedule in booking up its meeting space – hence its construction of a new convention center at Mandalay Bay.
Gov. Brian Sandoval's Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee is currently weighing whether to divert tax dollars from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority to a stadium proposal backed by Sheldon Adelson, to be built in hopes of luring the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas.
Applied Analysis principal Jeremy Aguero, an advisor to Sandoval's committee, says that the data gathered to this point would tend to indicate that Las Vegas is becoming maxed out on convention space and may start losing meeting business to other cities. Convention business is up, he says, at least 13 percent. "Do we have the capacity," he asks. "Sure." But not always at the times of peak demand in the convention industry. Through April alone, Las Vegas had hosted a staggering 8,500 events, large and small, drawing 2.6 million delegates."
The present Las Vegas Convention Center expansion is a three-phase operation that will begin with the ongoing demolition of the Riviera hotel-casino ("for outdoor exhibits and parking," says LVCVA spokesman Jeremy Handel), followed by the construction of new exhibition space, concluding with the total renovation of the existing Convention Center. "The expansion of the facility will add 1.2 million square feet of building, including 600,000 square feet of exhibit space and the accompanying meeting rooms, public areas, food service and back-of-house facilities. The facility is currently 3.2 million square feet with 1.9 million square feet of exhibit space," Handel adds.
"The convention-center industry, due to move-in and move-out and short windows in between other shows that can’t be utilized, considers [other] facilities to be at capacity at 65–70 percent usage. The Las Vegas Convention Center typically surpasses that figure. We run at capacity," Handel elaborates. "Expanding the facility will provide us with additional space to attract new shows that could use the facility at the same time as other shows that don’t take the entire facility. It also provides our largest shows with the opportunity to grow, which they have indicated they need."
Aguero says that convention space versus a stadium isn't an either-or proposition. Sam Boyd Stadium, way out on the periphery of town, is problematic and costly to bring up to state-of-the-art quality, he says, adding that a new stadium could draw Major League Soccer, the NFL, and neutral-site college football games. The presence of the Raiders (still very iffy) could bring other events and enhance the University of Nevada-Las Vegas' own football program. Besides, "we don't have a site that is even close" to 65,000 seats, Adelson's proposed dimension.
According the UNLV history professor Eugene Moehring, convention centers in Las Vegas have always been a case of supply chasing demand: "Since 1960, even as the LVCVA was expanding the convention center in many phases and the City of Las Vegas was building a facility near Cashman Field, many of the Strip hotels added convention centers, because they needed them … Once these facilities are built, the resorts can organize different types of events that these newer facilities can accommodate--especially if cutting-edge technical equipment is needed."
In the case of Wynn Paradise Park, which is predicated on convention trade, Steve Wynn rarely does anything without a very good reason. He has long pined for a convention center of his own and Paradise Park's proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center also positions it to benefit from spillover from events at the town's premier facility. Adelson's Sands Expo convention center is still top of the line and a popular venue – but it's also expensive. The tycoon has long and loudly chafed at having to compete with the publicly financed LVCVA ("a conspiracy to steal money from me").
Moehring contends that Vegas has had trouble staying on the curve even where arenas were concerned. "While today's major prizefights are held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s they were mostly staged outside in a small outdoor venue behind Caesars Palace. Even our early grand prix car races were either at the ancient Stardust facility west of the Strip or (the Caesars Palace Grand Prix for a few years) where The Mirage and [Treasure Island] are today.
"So, my point is: today and historically, Las Vegas hotel executives and promoters have been short of good facilities to stage a wide range of events. The Thomas & Mack Center (which opened in 1983) was not the best facility for REO Speedwagon to conduct their concerts, but neither was Cashman Field."
To be continued: Part II tomorrow.
