6 trade shows sign contracts with Sands

The Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas has signed six trade shows to five-year contracts. More signings are expected to be announced next week.

Officials with the Sands, the largest privately owned convention facility in the United States, say the signings verify that the trade shows were sold on Las Vegas and weren't looking to go elsewhere.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's contention that the trade shows would seek out other cities for their exhibitions, Sands officials said, was a tactic to generate support for construction of a 1.3 million-square-foot expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The company that owns the Sands Expo Center, which also owns the Venetian hotel-casino, has filed suit in District Court over how the expansion is proposed to be financed. The suit contends the LVCVA plans to use a form of general obligation bond that should require a public vote for the $150 million project and not revenue bonds.

The LVCVA says it is planning to use revenue bonds as defined in a state law passed earlier this year.

Sands officials have complained that the tax-subsidized Convention Center competes unfairly with private enterprise. The LVCVA says its mission is to draw conventions and trade shows to town to help all properties and some of those shows are growing beyond the city's ability to accommodate them unless the Convention Center is expanded.

Four different organizations that will bring a total 311,000 people to Las Vegas in six different shows signed on with the Sands Expo Center and the adjacent Venetian Congress Center. Their expected nongaming economic impact: $403 million.

The Western Show Associates and the Men's Apparel Guild in California (MAGIC) will conduct two shows each per year. The Jewelers' Circular-Keystone Show and the Automotive Parts & Accessories Association-Automotive Service Industry Association-Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association joint convention also was signed for five years.

All six shows have been conducted in Las Vegas in previous years. Last week, the Sands Expo Center announced the signing of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association Super Show to a three-year contract.

MAGIC has used space and will continue to use both the Convention Center and the Sands Expo Center to accommodate the more than 90,000 people who attend its shows.

The automotive groups meet at the Sands at the same time as the Specialty Equipment Market Association at the Convention Center and the Automotive Warehouse Distributors, who gather at The Mirage.

The Western Show Associates will meet exclusively at the Sands.

William Weidner, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Inc., said his company hopes to announce more signings next week for shows that haven't exhibited in Las Vegas before.

He said his company also is negotiating with the Winter Consumer Electronics Show for a long-term deal. CES has used both the Sands and Convention Center in the past but the show is growing.

"There are other new shows with contracts floating out there," Weidner said. "This city is a wonderful trade show destination and there is demand out there."

The Sands announcement pressed the issue of private enterprise against tax-subsidized convention facilities.

"Our booking of these shows obviates the need of these tax subsidies," Weidner said in the Sands announcement. "As a private, for-profit exhibit facility operating without the benefit of tax subsidies, we are delighted to deliver economic advantages to this community."

The LVCVA's outlook: "We are happy that these shows have committed to stay in Las Vegas and the whole community wins," said agency spokesman Rob Powers.

Weidner said the city's popularity among conventioneers makes up for the higher price show organizers must pay at the Sands.

"While it is true that show managers pay a higher price for space in a for-profit, tax-paying convention center, Las Vegas' compelling combination of the most trade show space of any city, the lowest airfare and destination cost in the country and the popularity of Las Vegas to boost show attendance makes it a trade show mecca," he said.

The Convention Center and the Sands Expo Center combined offer about 3 million square feet of exhibit space, the most of any city in the country.