Some T and M relief

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2005 | 8:01 a.m.

By some estimates, the cancellation of tonight's heavyweight championship fight between Vitali Klitschko and Hasim Rahman at the Thomas & Mack Center will deprive Las Vegas of about $10 million in nongaming revenue.

But not everybody in the city is lamenting the loss of the bout.

Workers at the Thomas & Mack had been prepared to convert the arena from Friday night's basketball configuration (for UNLV's exhibition game with Bryant) to a boxing configuration for the Klitschko-Rahman fight.

"If anything, it probably relieved some people on the production side because we had a very tough week from basketball to setting some pre-rigging for boxing and then back to basketball for Friday night and then back to boxing on Saturday night," said Daren Libonati, executive director of the T&M.

"In some ways, it eased up some pressure on a lot of people. But our facility guys, they enjoy that pressure."

Saturday's fight, which was promoted by Bob Arum's Top Rank Boxing, was called off when Klitschko reportedly suffered a knee injury last week during training. Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion, on Wednesday announced he was retiring from boxing.

"Obviously, it's always disappointing to prepare for something and then have it fall through," Libonati said. "From Top Rank's perspective and our own, we did a lot of work in getting prepared for this event.

"To our suite owners, to our corporate sponsors, to our guests, it's a big deal to have a fight in your venue and we're just disappointed we didn't get to do this one."

Libonati would not say whether T&M would return the site rental fee to Top Rank, but said this week's events would not sour his relationship with Arum.

"I have not sat down with Bob to discuss how we (will handle the site fee)," Libonati said. "This is one of those things that is out of the hands of the promoter and it's out of the hands of the building. This is a relationship business and it's something that Bob and I will discuss later on.

"Long before I was an arena director, I was involved in the boxing world ... and I understand these kinds of things happen. No hard feelings."

The cancellation of the fight was expected to result in a loss of nearly $10 million in nongaming revenue for Las Vegas businesses, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. But it is anticipated that the Veterans Day holiday weekend would offset much of that loss.

Harrah's intended to put up invited customers at its flagship property, Caesars Palace -- also the site of a 949-room luxury hotel tower that opened in August.

Earlier this week, about 30 customers who had been invited to attend the boxing match had canceled their reservations, Caesars Palace spokeswoman Debbie Munch said. Boxing managers and crew members on hand for the fight also will no longer be staying at the property, she said.

The company didn't anticipate any problems filling those rooms with tourists in town for holiday weekend, Munch said.

Attendance for the Klitschko-Rahman fight was expected to be in the neighborhood of 15,000, according to one industry source. Although short of a sellout, the crowd would have been similar to last month's rematch between Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales at the T&M.

Sun reporters Richard N. Velotta and Liz Benston contributed to this story. Brian Hilderbrand can be reached at 259-4089 or at bh@lasvegassun.com.