Editorial: Shed light on bids

Friday, June 29, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

At the rate Las Vegas is growing there is a clear need for a new public arena to replace the aging Thomas & Mack Center, which is too small and lacking many amenities to serve as a home for a professional team.

A long-sought goal of the Las Vegas City Council is for a new arena to go up somewhere downtown, so that the city might attract a team from either the National Basketball Association or the National Hockey League, or both.

We believe this is a worthy goal for a city whose metropolitan area boasts nearly 2 million people and whose long-term population projections show continued growth.

With Mayor Oscar Goodman leading the way, talk of a new arena has been escalating in recent years. In April the city solicited proposals from developers interested in building an arena that would comfortably accommodate more than the Thomas & Mack's 18,500 seats.

Although the city has released the names of companies that expressed their intent to submit formal bids, it will not release any details of their proposals at least until a selection committee appointed by the city manager makes a recommendation in mid-July.

Furthermore, the city has made no commitment to release details even before its scheduled vote on July 18.

A Nevada law, stating that bids requiring negotiation or evaluation by the governing body "may not be disclosed" until a recommendation has been made, is being cited by the city. Now, the law doesn't say "shall not be disclosed," but that might be splitting hairs.

We believe most residents would be interested in the details of the proposals, which likely will showcase an arena as the centerpiece of a larger development that could include stores, casinos, restaurants and residential units.

At the very least, details of the bids should be made public immediately after the selection committee's recommendation. A project with as many impacts on the public as this one should be as open as possible.