SportPark’s would-be buyers contemplating water park

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

Owners of the All-American SportPark, continuing their efforts to sell the troubled venture on Las Vegas Boulevard South, are talking to buyers who may develop a water park on the site.

A spokesman for the company that runs the theme park said officials are talking to experienced park owners willing to take over the 65-acre operation that currently includes a nine-hole par-3 golf course and apparel shop and batting cage and Go-Kart race track with affiliations with Major League Baseball and NASCAR.

Kirk Hartle, a spokesman for All-American SportPark Inc., said the company has had talks with operators who have speculated about a number of possibilities for the property, including building a water park similar to the north Strip's Wet 'n Wild theme park.

Hartle said Wet 'n Wild does not have a long-term lease on the land on which the park operates south of the Sahara hotel-casino. A representative of the water park could not be reached for comment.

"We'd like to have it happen (the sale) sooner rather than later, hopefully by the end of the year," Hartle said.

He said the company has been in discussions with "well-known parties in the theme park industry," but wouldn't disclose names.

Hartle's comments came on the heels of a quarterly earnings report in which the company reported a net loss of $802,690, 25 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $927,887, 31 cents a share, for the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues were down 15.2 percent to $1.5 million for the quarter from $1.8 million a year ago.

The park's parent company, Sports Entertainment Enterprises Inc., reported a net loss of $884,187, 11 cents a share, on revenues of $2.1 million, compared with a net loss of $1 million, 13 cents a share, on revenues of $2.5 million for the third quarter of 1999.

Sports Entertainment Enterprises, a 67 percent owner of All-American SportPark Inc., attributed its losses to the failing theme park.

The company attributed the decline to limited advertising since the fourth quarter of 1999 and fewer operating days in 2000 compared with 1999. The company closed the park to the public Monday through Wednesday in January and on Thursdays beginning in September, reserving it for group sales and special events.

But Hartle said the company's lack of experience in operating a theme park is what hurt it the most.

"It was a venture that was outside what we know really well," Hartle said, noting that the Chief Executive Officer Ron Boreta operated a successful golf retail outlet before investing in the park. "We think an experienced operator could come in and make it work."

He also said the company made mistakes when it launched the park.

"We have a ton of competition in this city and we went into the game a little light in financing, but at the time, that's all we could get," Hartle said. "It was value engineered and group sales got off to a late start, which turned out to be a significant part of what we do. We don't have the resources to reinvest, so it became difficult to market."

The company also announced this week that it has reached an agreement with Nevada State Bank to sell three loans on leases and equipment to Urban Land of Nevada, Las Vegas, the landlord of the theme park property. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the park had a $13.5 million loan from Nevada State Bank.

Two weeks ago, Voss Boreta, chairman of the board of the company, paid $2.75 million to Nevada State Bank to release property that had been pledged as additional collateral when financing the loan in October 1998.