Super Show moving to Orlando

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

The organization that produces the nation's largest sporting goods exhibition has formally announced plans to begin a three-year run of the show in Orlando, Fla., beginning next year.

Organizers of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association Super Show said in 2000 that it would be in Las Vegas three years, then switch to Orlando for three with the plan at the time to alternate over three-year periods. A spokesman for the association said today that no space has been signed for the 2007 show and no timetable has been established on when a decision would be made on location.

Mike May, a spokesman for the Super Show, said the association would evaluate its three-year run in Las Vegas after this year's show, which opens Jan. 19 at the Sands Expo Center.

The show, which has drawn 80,000 people to Las Vegas in two previous years, is attractive to Las Vegas because it is one of the largest by exhibition space sold. Orlando officials recently expanded their convention facilities and are expecting 70,000 people to attend the event in its Orlando debut in 2004.

The Super Show's shift to Las Vegas was big news in 2000 because the event left Atlanta after 15 consecutive years.