Why expand Salt Palace?

While both Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City councils voted Tuesday to spend taxpayer dollars to expand the Salt Palace Convention Center, there are increasing concerns that those taxpayer dollars may be wasted.

Some city leaders, including council members and Mayor Rocky Anderson, are wondering if such expansion will actually keep the coveted semiannual Outdoor Retailer conventions in Salt Lake City. And, according to an independent consultant hired by the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, if not for the Outdoor Retailer conventions, Salt Palace exhibit space doesn't need expanding.

"I am not personally willing to do this deal if it's not going to get us the outdoor retailers," city councilman Dale Lambert said.

Some council members even suspect that Anderson may call for a special meeting to reconsider the city's financial participation in the expansion. Anderson didn't return calls for comment Wednesday, but his office did provide a letter from VNU Expositions Inc., which puts on the Outdoor Retailer show. The letter listed 10 things Outdoor Retailer needs from any city that will host its burgeoning summer show.

Among those needs are: 720,000 square feet of exhibit space (currently the Salt Palace has 359,000), at least 30,000 sleeping rooms in close proximity to the convention center, an average daily hotel rate of $75, an international airport with 1,000 direct and single-stop flights per day, an average daily airfare of $250, 150 restaurants in close proximity to the convention center, rental-car availability of 8,000 and taxi availability of 500.

Salt Lake City falls short on most, if not all of those needs.

So, Anderson wonders, if the Salt Palace expansion isn't going to be enough to keep the retailers in town, why do it?

Maybe the only city that could come close to meeting those needs is Las Vegas, which is on the short list to steal the Outdoor Retailer show away from Salt Lake City, along with Orlando, New Orleans and Denver.

Still, "even Las Vegas couldn't fulfill all of these wishes," said Jason Mathis, communications director for the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.

VNU has complained of late that its summer show has outgrown the Salt Lake Palace. Losing the Outdoor Retailer summer and winter shows would hurt since they generate an estimated $32 million for Salt Lake City's economy.

Proponents of the city's participation in the expansion say they are not wasting money. Instead the six council members who voted in favor of Salt Palace expansion said they are making an effort to keep the VNU show in town.