Editorial: City wins as resorts join forces

Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

The New Year's celebration along the Las Vegas Strip will long be remembered for the fireworks spectacle that lit up the resort corridor like nothing before. The show certainly lived up to the hype fed to Southern California residents in the week preceding the holiday.

Even the most conservative of estimates placed the Strip crowd at more than 300,000, at least 50,000 more than last year. Onlookers were rewarded with a 13,000-shell fireworks show that lasted nearly 10 minutes.

Skeptics might say the display was no big deal because Las Vegas has ushered in prior new years with fireworks. But this show was different because many competing Strip resorts participated in a $500,000 coordinated effort sponsored by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Las Vegas Events. The event showed what the resorts can pull off when they work together. That is no small achievement.

The local gaming industry often acts in unison to fight proposed new taxes or support particular political candidates. But there have also been occasions when the clash of egos along the Strip produced nightmares, such as transportation disputes affecting the corridor. When the captains of our leading industry get into prolonged spats, the entire community loses.

The fireworks display was so successful it should be repeated annually, or at least until the Strip can invent something more spectacular. But we do not think this refreshing cooperation among the resorts should extend only to fireworks.

It would not be far-fetched for the Strip to create its own "holiday," such as the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. At a time when there has been a construction slowdown along the Strip and a corresponding reduction in new things to experience, this would be a good time for the resorts to think about other coordinated events to help draw visitors to the city.