Las Vegas Convention Center Getting Upgraded
The Casino City Times has the scoop:
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The cost of keeping Las Vegas ahead of the competition just increased by $153 million.
But tourism boosters say paying extra money beats the alternative of a gradual decline in business that could cost the local economy more than $5 billion in lost opportunity without an upgrade.
That's why the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve an $890 million upgrade to the Las Vegas Convention Center, an increase over the previous cost estimate of $737 million.
The upgrades are meant to help Las Vegas maintain its position as the top trade show destination in America. Renovation proponents say over time the investment will return $5.60 to the economy for every dollar spent.
The work, scheduled to be complete by the end of 2011, comes as Southern Nevada's top trade show competitors are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into renovations of their own. Members of the Las Vegas authority board want to stop them from chipping into the $8.2 billion trade shows and conventions contribute to the local economy.
Its nice to see that Vegas cares about keeping its convention status a priority. We need to get to more conventions there. Blogger's convention in Vegas anyone?
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Posted by Russell Miner at May 12, 2007 9:00 AM
The proposed expenditure to renovate the Las Vegas Convention Center is a ridiculous waste of the money that was raised by Las Vegas resorts. This will be another expensive fiasco and big time loser like the monorail and the Freemont Experience.
According to figures being used to promote this boondoggle, if Las Vegas lost a few of the biggest conventions in the world then the hotel rooms would be empty and the casinos would be bare during the days that those conventions are elsewhere. Figures don't lie, but liars can figure.
Would Las Vegas lose all that much convention business just because the Las Vegas Convention Center lost out on some really big conventions? How many days out of the year does Las Vegas host shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center that have 100,000 or more people? Spending $890 million dollars just to facilitate 40 or 50 days a year when the biggest of the big conventions are in town doesn't even make sense.
The "What stays..." slogan and ad campaign was one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time. Why isn't the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spending the proposed $890 million on something else like that?
The analysts and experts say this money has to be spent on the Las Vegas Convention Center or the sky will fall and Las Vegas will become a ghost town. The wonderful thing about the biggest hotels in the world, which just happen to be in Las Vegas, and just happen to have casinos, is they don't have to make $1 off of their rooms and restaurants in order to make a fortune. So, if the average convention visitor spends $1600 on non-gaming, and Joe and Jane Tourist who come here to gamble and have fun only spend $750, who's to say the casinos don't come out ahead with the gamblers instead of business people who are too busy working to play in the casino? Wouldn't it be terrible if hotels had to lower their rates to fill up there rooms so they could make their fortunes off of casinos like they used to in the good old days. (Remember back when Las Vegas was still the number one gambling place in the world?)
The gaming business is the still the most profitable business in Nevada. Let the resorts with casinos take care of getting their own convention business and filling up their rooms, instead of adding to the existing non-functional facility that is poorly located on a lot that has no decent access to freeways.
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