LVCVA to pay $5 million for conference sponsorships

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will pay nearly $5 million in guarantees and sponsorships for Mountain West Conference championship events in the city in the next three years.

The agency's board of directors unanimously agreed to three-year sponsorship agreements for the Las Vegas Bowl and the Mountain West Basketball Tournaments with the new athletic conference that includes UNLV.

The LVCVA committed to sponsorship of the bowl game for 1999, 2000 and 2001 and the tournaments for 2000, 2001 and 2002. All are scheduled to be broadcast nationally on ESPN or ESPN2.

The LVCVA had similar agreements with the Western Athletic Conference for the Las Vegas Bowl and that conference's men's and women's basketball tournaments.

The new agreement commits the LVCVA to a payout of $750,000 for the 1999 Las Vegas Bowl and $800,000 each for the 2000 and 2001 games. The guarantee for the league in the basketball tournaments is $790,000 in 2000, increasing by $10,000 each year through 2002.

Because expenses for the bowl games are expected to outpace revenues, the LVCVA is committed to paying the estimated difference -- $384,400 in 1999, $300,000 in 2000 and $200,000 in 2001.

But the LVCVA will split profits with the conference on the basketball tournaments, estimated at $205,500 in 2000, $150,000 in 2001 and $200,000 in 2002.

Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing for the LVCVA, told the board that the big investment can be justified in the anticipated return in media exposure.

In a memorandum to board members, Ralenkotter said the value of the media exposure and publicity is more than $10 million each year for the Las Vegas Bowl and nearly $5 million a year for the basketball tournaments.

The 1998 Las Vegas Bowl was seen by about 1 million people nationwide on ESPN2 while the 1999 Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournaments were seen by 2.3 million viewers over the six-day tournament on ESPN.

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