Cashman Center eyed for convention space

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

If the Las Vegas 51s minor-league baseball team moves to a proposed downtown stadium, Cashman Center's meeting space probably would be expanded, a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority executive says.

Southwest Sports Group, a Dallas company specializing in the construction of sports complexes, has been selected to develop 61 acres in downtown Las Vegas and one of the proposals under consideration is to build a stadium that would be home to the 51s, the AAA franchise of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The stadium would be a centerpiece to other downtown development.

LVCVA President Manny Cortez said the 51s' rental of Cashman Field accounts for only about $200,000 of the $2.1 million in income the LVCVA receives for renting the whole complex to various groups throughout the year.

"We have a lot more going on out there than most people realize," Cortez said.

Located on a 51-acre site, Cashman Center has two exhibit halls with a total of 98,100 square feet, 16 meeting rooms with a total of 17,500 square feet and a 1,940-seat indoor theater in addition to the 12,000-seat stadium.

Cortez said the LVCVA had at one time considered building a dome over the stadium, but the proposal was abandoned as too expensive. He said Cashman Center was dark only 19 days out of last year.

If there's no need for a baseball stadium, Cortez said the LVCVA probably would consider plans to expand exhibit space to serve the downtown and the growing Boulder Strip markets. He said Cashman offers good access to hotel-casinos on the Boulder Highway because Cashman is only a 10-15-minute bus ride away on Interstate 515.

He said the baseball field would not be kept as a possible spring training site because professional baseball teams have said they need several practice fields and a stadium would not serve any purpose as just a practice facility. Las Vegas and Henderson proposed spring training sites to several Major League Baseball teams several years ago, but the proposal died because at least four teams would have had to locate here for it to be financially feasible.