\nRichard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal \u00b7 February 19, 2015 at 5:46 pm
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\n\tWhen the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors takes up the acquisition of the Riviera on Friday, it will do so with a board comprised of members who will have to consider killing jobs \u2014 and competition.<\/p>\n
\tThe board meets at 9 a.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center.<\/p>\n
\tMost industry observers believe the proposal will be approved and that the only suspense will be in whether the vote is unanimous. Under consideration is the $182.5 million acquisition of the property and $8.5 million in acquisition-related expenses.<\/p>\n
\tOf the 14 members of the board, eight are elected officials who often build their re-election campaigns on the the jobs they\u2019ve helped produce in the community and bristle at the thought of big closures resulting in massive layoffs.<\/p>\n
\tWhen the Riviera closes as expected sometime in the summer, more than 850 people will lose their jobs. The upside, however, is that building the $2.3 billion Las Vegas Global Business District that would rise in the Rivera\u2019s place would produce 6,000 construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs in the next five to eight years.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI think it\u2019s good for the economy in the long run,\u201d said tourism industry expert Patti Shock, a long-time professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas hotel management program and currently an instructor at the Las Vegas-based International School of Hospitality.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe can bring in more conventions and have a competitive edge on our competitor cities. And, the international focus will make us a global powerhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tShock said that while jobs would be lost at the Riviera, they\u2019re mostly low-paying jobs.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI believe the industry can absorb them,\u201d Shock said. \u201cBut many of the jobs that will be created with increased convention business will be higher paying jobs. Initially, there will be construction jobs. Then, electricians, Teamsters and many other trades will have increased employment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSeven board members are casino representatives that have the opportunity to get rid of a competitor with the vote, although many in the industry would argue that the Riviera\u2019s competitive strength is lightweight at best.<\/p>\n
\tApproval of the measure also would lead to the removal of another well-recognized Las Vegas brand.<\/p>\n
\tThe Riviera is two months away from the 60th anniversary of its opening and would become the latest in a list of resorts with storied pasts that have been imploded. The Dunes, the Hacienda, the Castaways, the Landmark, the Sands, the Aladdin, the El Rancho, the Frontier, the Desert Inn and the Stardust have experienced similar fates.<\/p>\n
\tThat series of implosions casts a spotlight on Las Vegas being a place where there are fewer opportunities to build on vacant land and companies instead must knock down a historic structure to make way for progress.<\/p>\n
\tCollectively, the board is likely say they\u2019re acting in the community\u2019s best interests, bolstering Las Vegas\u2019 stance as the leading trade-show host in the nation with its action. The authority can\u2019t accommodate the requests it receives from shows that want to hold their events in Las Vegas. At least 20 major trade shows that have expressed interest in staging their events in Las Vegas couldn\u2019t because the calendar was full and there wasn\u2019t enough room to accommodate them.<\/p>\n
\tOf the 14 board members, only one isn\u2019t directly involved in the gaming industry or is an elected official \u2014 Kristin McMillan. The CEO of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce serves on a committee exploring the development of a transportation hub for the Global Business District.<\/p>\n
\tCasino executives serving on the board work for MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands, Boyd Gaming and Mesquite\u2019s Eureka Casino.<\/p>\n
\tElected board members include two members of the Clark County Commission or the city councils of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal \u00b7 February 19, 2015 at 5:46 pm Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on pinterest_shareMore Sharing Services 0 When the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors takes up the acquisition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}