Most groups that hold conventions find a different location every year. Typically, Salt Lake City will get on their short list of potential Western locations once a decade or so.

That's what makes the Outdoor Retailer show so unique. Since 1996, it has staged two shows a year in Salt Lake City, one in winter, which typically attracts about 15,000 attendees, and the other in the summer, which attracts about 20,000. While we're skeptical of claims this brings $32 million into the community each year (such estimates typically are overblown and impossible to verify), there can be no doubt that these shows do add handsomely to the local economy.

And so Salt Lake County should be commended for keeping the retailers from bolting to Las Vegas or elsewhere. The Outdoor Industry Association's decision to stay in Salt Lake City for the next five years, announced this week, was a great victory, indeed. But it did not come without a price.

Like major sports teams, large conventions now have the ability to hold entire communities hostage. One of the conditions the outdoor retailers imposed is that Salt Lake County expand the Salt Palace Convention Center to the tune of about $45 million to $55 million. Also, organizers want the state to aggressively protect wilderness and recreation areas, which translates into imposing restrictions on the uses of certain land — something that is not without a great deal of controversy.

Eventually, elected leaders have to decide whether the trade-offs are worthwhile. They also have to realize that some demands may not be within their power to control.

Once the Salt Palace is expanded, will convention officials be able to attract other large shows? Not likely. A lot of factors go into the decision to stage a convention in a particular city. Convention space is only one of them. Perhaps the Salt Palace will be able to occasionally stage two smaller shows at the same time, which would increase the net benefits to the community, but really big conventions probably still will be a rarity.

And should political decisions be made with an eye toward convention business? The governor's office already has formed a task force to study which recreation areas are worth protecting, but there are no guarantees that state lawmakers, who often have an eye out for the interests of miners and the extraction industry, will act in a way that pleases outdoor retailers.

What then? How far should Utahns go to keep this lucrative show?

Fortunately, those are questions that can wait at least five years, but like Utah's many natural wonders, they will always be looming on the horizon.