Sands seeks leads from LVCVA

Executives of Las Vegas Sands Inc. have asked the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for a list of trade shows the agency said were considering leaving the city.

In a letter faxed Thursday to Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing for the LVCVA, Sands President William Weidner asked that five conventions be identified so that his company, which operates the Venetian hotel-casino and the Sands Expo Center, could pursue contracts with them.

Ralenkotter told the local media the shows were considering looking elsewhere because the Las Vegas Convention Center's 1.3 million-square-foot expansion was being held up by litigation from the Sands.

Ralenkotter could not be reached for comment this morning.

"Rest assured we will do everything in our power to accommodate those five conventions and any other show you are unable to accommodate," Weidner said in his letter, which also was faxed to the media. "With all that the Sands Expo Convention Center/Venetian meeting complex and our city have to offer, there is no reason to lose even one convention group."

The letter said the Venetian has booked "hundreds of new conventions" and it urged the LVCVA to bring new business to the city and not relocate existing business to other venues.

"More importantly, don't withhold information about shows that might be accommodated at the Sands Expo and Convention Center at the risk of sacrificing the potential economic impact of those shows for our city simply because we find our respective organizations at odds over the philosophy of how tax-subsidized entities ought to operate vis-a-vis private enterprise," the letter says.

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