Cost, new faces doomed spring training camp

Jeff Schweers

Saturday, Oct. 4, 1997 | 6:18 a.m.

For nearly four years the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority methodically studied and planned the construction of a Major League Baseball spring training camp.

Officials studied whether it made sense economically, chose and started acquiring a 220-acre site in Henderson, approved the financing and negotiated with major league teams.

In June the LVCVA board of directors voted 8-4 in favor of a baseball complex that would house four major league teams for seven weeks each spring. It included clubhouses, a 5,000-seat main stadium and 24 ball fields available to the public the rest of the year.

But in a stunning reversal three months later, the board voted 9-3 to kill the training camp.

Suddenly a seemingly done deal was a dead deal.

Holy Cow! What happened?

There is no single reason for the demise of the $60 million project, but timing had a great deal to do with it:

* One month after the June vote, five new board members were appointed, replacing four training camp supporters with four opponents of the project.

* When the directors received a final report before September's vote that the project's cost had jumped from $50 million to $60 million, most decided the cost had gotten too high for the new tourists it would attract.

* Board members representing the gaming industry, worried about falling hotel occupancy and gaming revenue, lobbied fellow board members to kill the project, arguing that the money could be better spent.

* Board members were unnerved by the fact that three of the four teams they had been negotiating with bailed out, and the remaining team had made no commitment to move to Las Vegas.

* The project got bogged down in territorial disputes and competing interests for special events and tourist promotion dollars, including whether to renovate Cashman Field for the Las Vegas Stars minor league team or build them a new stadium in Henderson.

"When you're dealing with politicians, you never know," said Stars General Manager Don Logan, a key promoter of the training facility as well as a new ball field for his triple-A team.

"I think some of the members felt the talk had languished too long and they got tired of dealing with it."

Logan first approached the LVCVA in 1993 about building a spring training camp and renovating Cashman Field. When the LVCVA agreed to explore the idea, the county, Las Vegas, Mesquite and Henderson vied to have the complex built in their jurisdictions.

Henderson won, and the other jurisdictions started losing interest in the project.

Soon after, Las Vegas board members Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and Councilman Arnie Adamsen aligned themselves with casino representatives Donald Givens, general manager of the Excalibur hotel-casino, and Don Snyder, president of Boyd Gaming Corp.

They made up the four-vote bloc in June that opposed further discussion, but were overruled by the eight members who wanted to continue talking about the project.

That June vote was also marked by angry exchanges between Las Vegas and Henderson officials. Since that vote, five new board members were sworn in, replacing three supporters with three opponents: Imperial Palace General Manager Ed Crispell for Gary Gregg of the Hilton Hotels Corp., Mesquite Mayor Ken Carter for Boulder City Councilwoman Iris Bletsch, and North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon, who replaced former NLV Mayor Jim Seastrand.

The other two new members kept the same position as their predecessors: Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, who replaced former Mayor Bob Groesbeck, a supporter; and Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald, who replaced Adamsen.

"Every time that board changes and you have new people, you're going to have changes in philosophy," Logan said.

The LVCVA board is made up of seven elected officials chosen by their respective elected bodies, and five Chamber of Commerce nominees, ratified by the LVCVA board, who represent gaming, general business and downtown interests.

"I respect what the authority did," said Groesbeck, who chose not to run for a second term as Henderson mayor. "When I was sitting on the board we didn't have the same concerns they had (in September) with respect to the drop in occupancy rates and revenue."

Givens said he wanted "to make sure the views of the hotels I represent and what I believe are the views of the community" were known. He was representing those views, Givens said, when he lobbied the other board members and then made the successful motion to kill the training camp but to continue studying ways to renovate Cashman Field.

Givens said spending $60 million was too much money to bring in only an estimated 19,000 new tourists annually, and that spring training camp did nothing to boost hotel occupancy during the lean months of June, July, August and December.

"Spring training just wasn't going to do much," Givens said. "That obviously was a driving force behind it."

Snyder could not be reached for comment, but said previously that he was opposed to the training camp for economic reasons.

"I'm not convinced the economics are in favor of this deal," Snyder has said.

"I agreed with Mr. Givens that the cost in comparison to the benefits was a little bit disproportional," said Carter, who is also risk manager for the Casa Blanca resort in Mesquite. "This was a gigantic cost to the authority ... for a very short-term benefit."

McDonald, a Metro Police officer, said he let his actions speak for him.

"Either we had to put it in motion or stop talking about it," McDonald said.

McDonald said he made his decision after he was briefed by Jones, Adamsen and several other board members.

"I agreed with that argument, do we get the best bang for our bucks?" McDonald said. "My biggest concern was when we're using tax dollars, we want to be real careful."

Montandon and Crispell could not be reached for comment.

Also, between June and September two other sitting members -- Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid and Downtown Econolodge owner Juanita Wilson -- changed their minds.

For Kincaid, it was a matter of economics. After seeing the final report on costs and benefits, she decided against the complex.

"When I looked at it I didn't see anything that was going to bring tourists into the community," Kincaid said. "The burden of proof was on them to increase tourism in the valley."

Wilson said she voted in June to continue discussing the project "because we felt Henderson had really put in a lot of commitment."

But when the final numbers came in, Wilson stopped supporting the complex.

"The scenario in the valley has changed," Wilson said. "The business is much slower than anticipated, as they catch up with the new rooms coming on line."

Wilson said she conferred with "a lot of casino owners" before her September vote.

"To me it was an obvious decision to make, and the primary reason we should not have built it," Givens said.

Summer hotel occupancy for the 106,000 existing rooms in Clark County dropped from 90 percent in 1996 to 83 percent this year, according to the LVCVA. That in turn results in a drop in room taxes, the chief revenue source for the LVCVA.

The picture becomes more clear when this lower revenue is combined with an estimated $10 million the LVCVA will have to start taking out of its special events and promotions budget in 1999 for school construction. The $85 million received last year in room tax revenue made up the bulk of the LVCVA's $110 million budget. The LVCVA is required to spend most of that room tax on special events and other tourism promotion that helps boost room occupancy.

Rossi Ralenkotter, LVCVA vice president of marketing, said the numbers simply "didn't pencil out."

Other projects deliver more media exposure and attract more tourists for less money. The $1.5 million spent promoting NASCAR's Winston Cup Race in March helped sell out the event's 100,000 tickets in 30 hours, with 70 percent going to out-of-town guests.

By comparison, the LVCVA study for the training camp showed an estimated 256,000 fans would attend spring training games each year, but only 19,000 -- or 7.6 percent -- would be drawn to Southern Nevada specifically because of the Henderson complex.

"I don't know how you can justify spending $60 million to get maybe 19,000 tourists," said Jones, vice chairwoman of the LVCVA board.

Support also began to falter when staff reported to the board in May 1996 that the training camp would operate in the red to the tune of $6.4 million a year -- numbers disputed by Groesbeck and other supporters.

Nonetheless, the board voted at that time to sell up to $50 million in bonds to finance the project and committed to building the complex in Henderson (the bonds have not been sold). The city promptly began buying up parcels to assemble a 220-acre lot along the north side of Stufflebeam Avenue between U.S 95 and Boulder Highway. To date, Henderson has spent $8.24 million for 135 acres.

Gibson said the land is an asset for the city of Henderson regardless of what gets built on it. Among the projects on the table: a municipal golf course, a regional park and a space center.

LVCVA board members also were uneasy as far back as last year, when they were told that three of the four major league teams had pulled out of negotiations. Only the Houston Astros remained out of a list that included the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies.

Finally, board members were spooked by the rising cost of the training camp -- which doubled from an initial estimate of $30 million.

"I had had indications from some people they were willing to do $50 million, but were not comfortable going to $60 million," Gibson said. "That probably is primarily what got in the way."

For some, it was too much of a reminder of the bath they took building the Silver Bowl, now Sam Boyd Stadium.

"We were not able to attract those big teams and the bowl didn't turn out to get the crowds they anticipated even for college teams," Kincaid said. "It was such a big expense, we eventually donated it to UNLV."

Another killing point was disagreement over whether to spend up to $30 million to renovate Cashman Field or spend $34 million building a new triple-A stadium on the Henderson site.

"Just on the numbers I think we'd find that Cashman could be put to better use," Gibson said. "I wouldn't close the door on a new triple-A facility without a study to be sure there isn't something else we could be doing with Cashman."

Expect that debate to be a heated one.

"We have a large investment in Cashman," Kincaid said. "We can't abandon recreational facilities that service the inner core."

Supporters insist the training camp is still a good plan for Henderson and the rest of the Las Vegas Valley, and hope it can be brought back for reconsideration.

"I think it was a huge disservice to the community that we so abruptly put four good years down the drain," said LVCVA board Chairwoman and Clark County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt, who voted with Gibson and First Security Bank President David Smith to keep the project alive.

"I think the action to kill all the alternatives was premature," said Gibson, who is looking at how to get the training camp back on the agenda. To get it back would require that one of the board members who voted to kill the project ask that it be reconsidered.

Those who voted to kill the training camp don't expect to see its return anytime soon.

"The message was pretty well sent," Carter said. "To come back it would have to be under a different arrangement, with more interest from the private sector to get funding."

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