Study: Two sport centers aid economy

Pauline Bell

Thursday, June 26, 1997 | 11:48 a.m.

The Thomas & Mack Center and the Sam Boyd Stadium have contributed $1.1 billion to the Clark County economy and added more than 1,700 jobs in the last 12 years, according to a UNLV study.

That is the bottom line of a recent economic impact study of the two facilities conducted by the university's Center for Business and Economic Research and prepared by Associate Director Ricardo Gazel.

Of more than 200 events annually at Thomas & Mack, the National Finals Rodeo is the most important to the local economy, registering close to 1.8 million attendees and representing more than 2.2 million visitor days, according to the report.

Thomas & Mack and the stadium "sustained 244 full-time equivalent jobs per year" in addition to more than 1,500 jobs indirectly created by the center, the 79-page study said.

"Through the years, we believed our events had a significant impact, but the results outlined in the study are phenomenal," said Director Pat Christenson.

The study, dated June 19, comes in the waning days of the Nevada Legislature as lawmakers concentrate on money issues.

Christenson called the timing of the study's release "coincidental" and said if anything it comes a little late to influence lawmakers to appropriate funds for expansion of facilities.

"Whatever they are going to do on behalf of the issue of expansion, I'm sure it's pretty well along. I'm still hopeful, but I don't know if this is going to have an impact," he said.

The Board of Regents asked for $26 million in bond money to restore and renovate the two UNLV facilities with funds to be repaid by slot tax revenues. But that would not include expansion of either facility.

Athletic-event supporters and UNLV officials are looking for more money to expand both facilities. Proponents want to enlarge Thomas & Mack to accommodate an additional 8,000 National Finals Rodeo fans. The stadium would be enlarged by as much as 20,000 seats.

Christenson said the expansions would cost an additional $50 million. But supporters of UNLV athletics approached lawmakers in April with a request for $100 million in bonding authority for the expansions.

For Sam Boyd Stadium, three-day Grateful Dead concerts in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1995 had attendances of more than 440,000, which represented nearly 780,090 visitor days.

Between 1984 and 1996, the two facilities spent $68.1 million in the local economy. Of that, $32.8 million was payroll, $23 million was for goods and services supplied by local vendors, $8.5 million was for utilities and $3.8 million was for maintenance.