Fair could grow, but should it?

By Joe Schoenmann

Friday, April 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Organizers tout the annual Clark County Fair and Rodeo in Logandale as a trip back to a simpler time.

But given that the fair is within an hour’s drive of almost 2 million Las Vegas city dwellers, some think clinging to the past is a mistake. Especially when catering to a more urban clientele might boost attendance and eliminate the need for yearly taxpayer subsidies to keep the fair alive.

The four-day event that runs through Sunday night is expected to draw about 80,000 people, but according to John Owens, general manager of the Nevada State Fair and author of the book “Opening Night: Creating Successful Events,” it should have attendance of 200,000 to 500,000.

“They don’t know what they’re doing; that’s the problem,” Owens said Wednesday. “That’s the problem with a lot of these fairs.”

Each year, fair manager Kevin Willard said, the fair receives $25,000 from Clark County, $75,000 from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and $25,000 from Las Vegas Events, a private nonprofit organization that receives most of its funding from the authority, which gets its money from hotel room taxes. Hotel occupancy is down lately. And though the county’s contribution was a drop in the bucket of its nearly $6 billion annual budget, these days every penny spent is being scrutinized.

In any case, Owens said, a fair just 60 miles from a population center like Las Vegas “should not need any taxpayer dollars.”

Clark County Fair Inc., a nonprofit group without anyone from Las Vegas on its board, operates the fair.

Todd Robison, a 47-year-old lifetime Logandale resident and full-time supervisor for NV Energy, has been the fair’s general manager since 1997. Like many in this rural valley of about 10,000, he remembers the fair having to borrow money to make up the loss of $37,000 in 1994. Now, he says, the fair nets about $12,000 a year after expenses of about $1 million.

Robison is not against increasing fair attendance, or “bringing it to another level ... it could make a lot of money.”

And he believes Clark County and the fair board need to sit down and have that talk.

“I’ve always kind of liked the growth, but in a manner that’s controllable,” he said. “It is a tough feeling when you are trying to park cars out here on a Saturday and you’re wishing some people would go home to have space for others. It becomes challenging in terms of the facility we have.”

When the county and the fair board ratify a new, long-term agreement this summer, Robison said, “there’s going to be a method of truly partnering with the county ... and the county will feel like they’re more a part of their own fair.”

Indeed, some of those feelings are evoked in an Aug. 29 e-mail from Becky Flynn, a county management analyst, to Cliff Fields, a county parks and recreation manager. Flynn acknowledged the county sometimes does things “because they have always been done that way.” But after researching the history of the fair, she wondered very plainly: “Why isn’t the county fair one of our signature events?” She went on to justify that idea, arguing that “money brought in could pay for improvements to the fairgrounds and other (parks and recreation) facilities and supplement program budgets.”

“Times have changed, the community has grown,” she added. “Why wouldn’t we want a county fair that could potentially combine traditional ‘rural’ activities with representation from the business community that makes our county thrive and represents what we are known for? It could be a great event, but that is just what it is ... an event ... and it should be produced by our event staff.”

The county employs four event staff members who plan activities such as October’s Renaissance Fair in Sunset Park. It also employs two full-time marketing people who spend much of their time writing event news releases, said Jennifer Knight, county spokeswoman.

Jane Pike, acting parks and recreation director, said Wednesday the time needed to grow and maintain a larger fair would likely take effort away from other events.

“That trade-off is something we struggle with all the time,” she said.

Logistical problems are also an issue.

Willard, 53, a full-time real estate appraiser, said traffic on the five-mile road from Interstate 15 to Logandale is bumper to bumper on fair weekends.

“We advertise for about the number we can handle,” Willard added.

In 2008, the fair spent about $69,500 to advertise, up from about $54,000 the year before. Willard was unable to provide a figure for 2009.

However much was spent this year, it was not enough to reach at least one key Clark County resident: County Commissioner Steve Sisolak. He was raised in Wisconsin and has plenty of fond memories of the Wisconsin State Fair. But when quizzed Wednesday about “what county event” was kicking off this week, he threw up his hands.

“Oh yeah,” he said, when told of the fair. Sisolak has been to the Clark County fair with his kids but, he said, “I don’t remember it being that much fun.”

That, Owens said, is a huge problem. The key to success in a fair is creating an atmosphere that is memorable, fun and has people talking it up to their friends. Entertainment and carnival rides are important keys to creating that mental link, he said.

Though he is cutting the state fair’s budget this year, he reels off a lineup of magicians, robots, musicians and video-game tournaments as attractions, then text-messaging contests as just one method of marketing the August fair. In his first full year with the fair after being hired in July, Owens says, attendance will increase from last year’s total of about 70,000.

“We’re having a Wii bowling tournament for seniors and a ‘Guitar Heroe’ competition,” he said, referring to two popular video games. “I know what I have to do to turn it around; I’ve done it before.”

When Pike hears of what’s going on up north, she asks one thing the marketing guru in Reno might not have considered. As saturated as most Clark County residents are with high-tech, with glitzy signs and noise and entertainment, would they really want the county fair to take on a different tone? The county fair’s livestock competition, its rodeo and its locale in rural Logandale are reminders of simpler places where many of Las Vegas’ urban dwellers lived before moving here.

“That’s kind of the appeal of it in Logandale,” Pike said. “It’s nice to see something a little more homespun than your typical Las Vegas event.”

Or as Willard put it, coming to the fair is like “going back in time 20 to 30 years.”

“The fair is basically taking someone back to their roots, and I think there’s a lot about that idea that people like.”