$890 Million Waste

at Las Vegas Convention Center

 Planned by  Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

by Vegas Taxi Driver
May 14, 2007

On May 17th the public will supposedly be heard by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board regarding the proposed $890 million to be spent refurbishing and remodeling the old dysfunctional Las Vegas Convention Center which is located in a bad place for traffic and access. That is a lot of money! Why not build a new convention center in a good place with freeway access and airport access, or let the resorts that raise the money host conventions while the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority uses the money to advertise and get more gamblers and tourists and small business meetings and average sized conventions.

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. The Las Vegas City Council has already okayed another $500 million to extend the monorail to the airport, which will not work either. I suspect that the people who are going to profit from the money being spent are probably friends of politicians, which would be okay if the money wasn't being tossed down the drain.

There are some businesses in Las Vegas owned by people who are morally opposed to casinos and gambling, and they want to make as much money as they can by extracting money raised by the resorts with casinos in order to fund their projects. There are also lots of hotels surrounding the Las Vegas Convention Center that do not have casinos, and much of their business is dependent on the Las Vegas Convention Center. My guess is that these non-gaming businesses, along with resorts closest to the Las Vegas Convention Center are more concerned about their own well-being than what is good for Las Vegas.

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 like that?

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.

There are thousands of conventions per year in Las Vegas. The super big conventions take place during prime convention season, and there are thousands of smaller conventions that need to have their conventions during the same time as the super big conventions. Smaller conventions would certainly replace any big convention that was lost by not having a huge convention facility. There is plenty of convention space at resort properties around Las Vegas, but smaller conventions do not want to have their conventions in Las Vegas at the same time as a super big convention because super big conventions (80,000+) cause traffic and transportation problems, high room rates, and difficulty getting into restaurants and shows.

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.

It is a nightmare to get to the Las Vegas Convention Center to pick up passengers. Taxis and limos who want to pick up at the Las Vegas Convention Center can't even get close to it during rush hour, which just happens to be when the conventions want to end their day. The large casino resorts, however, have taxis and limos bringing in passengers all the time, and that means the people waiting in their cab line have a better chance of getting a cab or limo. But no loaded taxis or limos are going to the Las Vegas Convention Center when a convention is over. Trying to drive to the airport from the Las Vegas Convention Center at the end of a big convention is ridiculous. All the construction workers and service employees and people working in the Hughes Business Center are heading south on Paradise to get to Interstate 215 at the same time conventioneers need to get to the airport. Part of the project includes "78% more taxi space". I assume that means more area for people to stand in line waiting for rush hour traffic to subside so a taxi or two can make it to the Las Vegas Convention Center, as traffic will be way worse than it is now by the time this project is finished.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority should spend the money on something that makes both sense and dollars.

by Vegas Taxi Driver
May 14, 2007

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