Letter: Sands Expo Center can’t compete with LVCVA

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 8:57 a.m.

Re the Sept. 10 Sun story, "Venetian calls for end to LVCVA": This is a pathetic attempt to hide the fact that the Sands Expo Center is the worst place in Las Vegas to hold a convention or trade show. For example:

1. Sands Expo charges 50 percent to 75 percent more per square foot than the Las Vegas Convention Center.

2. Parking at Sands Expo is $8 per day -- every day, whereas at the LVCC, parking is $5 per day during shows and is free in the adjacent lots during set-up and tear-down.

3. Food at the Sands Expo is terrible, expensive and monopolized. (If you go out for lunch, you must pay another $8 to re-enter parking lot.) LVCC's air-conditioned lounge not only serves up a good meal, they offer convention workers a discount.

4. Unloading freight at Sands Expo is a nightmare, with steeply inclined ramps and tight corners for those big trucks to navigate, as opposed to the LVCC having several freight doors (at street level) all around the facility, with large lots to stage the trucks (and empty crates) in for loading/unloading.

5. And finally, the floors at Sands Expo have so many humps and valleys in them, you had better bring several bundles of shims to set your exhibit, not to mention the fact that whenever a forklift passes by, the building shakes as if there were a major earthquake in progress.

From the standpoint of someone who makes a living in the convention industry, Sheldon Adelson should end his little war with the LVCVA and implode the Sands Expo to make room for something beneficial to our community.

After all, it was the associations stuck with holding their shows at Adelson's property who requested the further expansion of the LVCC, and even offered to pay for it themselves, up front.

KEVIN DUGAN