Columnist Dean Juipe: LVCVA cuts cause some scrambling

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, May 25, 1999 | 10:38 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It was quite a hit list and the initial reaction is one of pity for the numerous sporting and cultural events that lost their funding in a sweeping Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority budget cut.

Nineteen events that are dependent to varying degrees on the LVCVA for a cash subsidy were affected by a decision that was announced Thursday.

In some cases, the loss of that annual LVCVA funding will mean the end of the event.

In other cases -- such as the Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- the loss of the LVCVA contribution shouldn't put much of a dent in business. In the Speedway's case, that's $1.7 million it has to do without, yet it has the resources to recoup that money.

It's not in danger of going belly up.

But it has to be presumed that some of these other events are already visualizing their pulse line flattening out. Can the Las Vegas Chili Cookoff survive without its $50,000? Probably not, at least in its present form.

Initially, the Las Vegas Stars feared their annual spring fling, Big League Weekend, would have to be sacrificed at the altar of budgetary concessions. But after a few days' examination, Stars execs are somewhat confident that their $500,000 loss will either be reinstated in some fashion or replaced through corporate means.

Likewise, the Las Vegas Marathon lost its $20,000 subsidy yet race director Al Boka has replaced that money -- and then some -- just in the last few days.

"We're OK," he said Monday. "Actually, we're more than OK. But that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed to find out the LVCVA did what it did, given the tremendous amount of money they have."

The LVCVA cuts were the result of a $12 million shortfall it is said to be experiencing.

Boka said he came across a petitioner in front of a supermarket over the weekend, and the man was collecting signatures in an effort to put the LVCVA's business practices before the voters. As it is, despite being a public entity, the LVCVA has the luxury of working in what amounts to a publicity vacuum.

Granted, looks can be deceiving, but it's easy to believe the LVCVA has a wide berth when it comes to public scrutiny.

More to the point, however, is this reality check: Las Vegas has long been an anomaly in that many of its annual events and activities are underwritten by an agency that is designed to promote tourism, and maybe the time has come for these events to stand -- or fail -- on their own.

For instance, Boka said "to the best of my knowledge, we were the only marathon in the country that received direct financial support from their city. That's not the case in some other countries, where they do support marathons, but it is here."

This is a second financial hit for the Las Vegas Marathon, which also lost a $50,000 stipend from Las Vegas Events a couple of years ago. Nonetheless, the race is surviving and prospering thanks to corporate contributions -- and Boka's hustling.

For those events that have been endangered by the cuts, it's either find the money elsewhere or throw in the towel. It's survival not only of the fittest, but of the well-connected.

That's the way of the world, of course, and, just maybe, it was overdue in Las Vegas. If an event cannot inspire corporate (or private) backing, perhaps it really doesn't need to exist.

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