Show operators upset

Small exhibitors are angry over the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority decision to tear down the Livestock Events Center.

The RSCVA voted on Dec. 6 to tear down the Center and Armory because of the high cost of repairing them. The only bid to do the repairs on the structures came in at $650,000.

Dean Clements, owner of Tanners Marketplace Shows, said moving his events to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center—also operated by the RSCVA—will mean substantial increases in the cost of his events.

“It is so much less,” he said. “Typically a show over the weekend from set-up on Friday through Sunday cost me about $2,500.” He said he has been quoted a price of $4,000 for the convention center, a 60 percent increase. But he said he does not believe the RSCVA is demolishing the Livestock Events Center to drive exhibitors to the convention center.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “I just think they didn’t take us into their consideration.”

Clements has owned his business for five years, and he bought it from someone who had it for about a decade, so these are stable, consistent users of the facility.

“We use it,” he said. “The gemstone shows are in there. Non profits use it. It is busy almost every weekend.”