Salt Lake makes pitch to keep Outdoor Retailer show

And now the waiting starts.

After weeks of intense preparation, representatives from Salt Lake city and county governments, the Convention & Visitors Bureau, Salt Palace Convention Center managers and redevelopment agencies Thursday flew to Laguna Beach, Calif., and made their pitch to keep the lucrative semiannual Outdoor Retailer convention in town.

"We put forth our absolute best effort," said deputy county mayor Alan Dayton. "I think everybody feels pretty good. We feel we've done everything we can."

Seven Salt Lake types and three officers of VNU Expositions Inc., which puts on the Outdoor Retailer shows, gathered in a hot, cramped VNU conference room for a three-hour meeting Thursday afternoon.

There, Dayton and others — primarily county Fine Arts Division director Chris Crowley — formally presented Salt Lake's plans to expand the conference center, which has become too small for the conventions. They also addressed other concerns regarding hotel space and pricing, number and cost of flights into Salt Lake City, available dates, rental cars and restaurants within close proximity.

Eleven cities, including Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando and Denver, are vying for the conventions, which pump $38 million into Salt Lake's economy each year.

Despite what the presenters may have hoped, the VNU officials "made it clear that they were not going to discuss our chances or give us odds or anything like that," Dayton said. They did promise to give their answer by Aug. 13, soon enough to call off expansion plans if Outdoor Retailer winds up going elsewhere.

"We need to know by then, before we stick a shovel in the ground," Dayton said.

Salt Lake representatives are requesting a five-year commitment from VNU in order to justify the expansion.

Repeated meetings between county, city and the state Division of Community and Economic Development have resulted in the three governments agreeing to jointly fund a $10 million first-phase expansion consisting of an underground parking structure west of the Salt Palace and a tent to provide additional exposition space, as well as additional money to fund architectural plans for the second phase — permanent expansion space above the parking garage.

The first phase would be completed before summer of next year, with the second by summer 2006.