Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

As Texas makes its move, ACM Awards plays Vegas

The Last Rodeo

Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan and Academy of Country Music Executive Director Bob Romeo backstage during ACM Presents: Brooks & Dunn - The Last Rodeo at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 19, 2010.

2010 ACM Awards: Rehearsals

Jason Aldean performs onstage during the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards rehearsals at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 15, 2010. Launch slideshow »

2010 ACM Awards: Arrivals

The 45th Academy of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 18, 2010. Launch slideshow »

Country music fans clamoring for the Academy of Country Awards to keep its Tony Lamas in Vegas should pay attention to the obvious:

The Texas Legislature.

Well, maybe that’s not so obvious. But to keep the ACM Awards live broadcast and peripheral events from doin’ a boot-scootin’ boogie to Cowboys Stadium, Las Vegas needs to shine this weekend while keeping an eye on the competition.

Of course, that would be Arlington, Texas, home of the Death Star-ian facility where city officials hope to stage the show after yanking it from its moors at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

What can be said, and by no other authority than ACM President Bob Romeo, is that the show will be held in Las Vegas in 2012.

“We’re already planning on coming back next year,” Romeo said during a phone interview from Mandalay Bay this week. “We love Las Vegas. You’d be hard-pressed to find a fan or artist who doesn’t like Las Vegas.”

Romeo is hoping Sunday’s Mandalay Bay Fan Jam, an ACM-connected show being staged as the live telecast at MGM Grand plays out, will help grow an event that he claimed over the summer had outgrown Vegas. Rihanna and Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles will duet on the new single “California King Bed” during that show. The main show, co-hosted by Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire, starts at 5 p.m. and airs on tape delay at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Folding in the free shows at the First and Third Street Stages on Fremont Street, which are tonight and Saturday night, the ACMs are blooming into the sort of citywide country festivals that tourism officials believe can beat back attempts to move the show to Texas.

The latest on that attempt: Two weeks ago, officials with the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow the city to lasso the ACM Awards, along with the Democratic and Republican national conventions. To make that happen, the Texas Senate would have to pass a bill releasing millions of dollars in funds from Texas’ Major Events Trust Fund.

The fund is used for what its name implies: to lure major events to the state of Texas. There is no ambiguity about the Lone Star State’s objectives, that’s for sure. To quote from a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story about the trust fund: “The Legislature created the fund to draw events to Texas that are normally held in other states.”

Such states as Nevada, for example.

The fund is sustained by taxing the state’s tourists (sales, liquor, rental car and hotel occupancy revenues are the specific areas from where fees are drawn). The money is then funneled into Texas municipalities as reimbursement payments covering operating costs for major events.

These showcases have proven a financial boon to such cities as Arlington, which hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 2010 and Super Bowl XLV this year, events that bring millions to the region. A study conducted on behalf of the Super Bowl Host Committee said the economic impact on the region from the Super Bowl would reach nearly $618 million, the highest figure ever for a Super Bowl.

That’s a pretty fair payoff for the $31.2 million in reimbursement funds the state paid the city of Arlington. Officials for the city estimate the show could have a $100 million impact on the region.

But what Vegas does offer to counter this statewide effort is enormous scope (and at the risk of sounding like a Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority PowerPoint presentation), a variety of splashy stages and invaluable entertainment, dining and shopping options on and off the Strip.

“The Dallas thing has been kicked around for years,” Romeo says. “But obviously it would have to be a year or two down the road. But we do have the Fan Jam event, which is selling very well, and we have a chance to sell out both arenas.”

And if that happens?

“We start having discussions on how we super-size the show here,” Romeo says. “They don’t want to see us leave, and we’re going to try to be creative in how to bring people and grow the event here.”

Romeo’s conversations thus far have been with Las Vegas Events and MGM Resorts officials. If he is to fulfill the ACM’s goals to expand throughout the valley, he’ll need to also grow the list of those his organization negotiates.

“We’ve been talking about calling it Vegas Goes Country as we consider events around the awards show,” says Romeo, who is dually impressed with the seating capacity of Cowboys Stadium (a total of 110,000) and the unique appeal of Vegas. “Is bigger better? Acts usually have a progression from clubs to arenas to stadiums. But Las Vegas has versatility as its option. What does that mean? Holding ACM events into eight or nine different showrooms?”

Maybe. The National Finals Rodeo holds events at several resorts on the Strip and on Fremont Street. Of course, the NFR spans nearly two weeks.

“We’re one show, so it would be a challenge to turn it into a festival,” Romeo says. “When I see the Strip, I see potential.”

If that potential is enough to beat back Big D and its public funding is the question.

“If it does move from Las Vegas,” Romeo says, “it won’t be for lack of effort.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow "Kats With the Dish" at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

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