Salt Lake's biggest convention, Outdoor Retailer, opens Thursday with an estimated 19,000 retailers and manufacturers expected to attend the four-day event.

A pre-show open-air demo will take place today at Willard Bay State Park, where the latest canoeing, kayaking and other outdoor gear will be displayed.

From Thursday through Sunday, booth exhibits at the Salt Palace Convention Center will showcase the newest outdoor products.

The convention is not open to the general public.

Outdoor Retailer, owned and managed by Virginia-based VNU Expositions Inc., has been in Salt Lake continuously since 1996 and is worth an estimated $32 million in annual direct spending to the city and draws nearly 20,000 visitors to its summer show and 15,000 visitors to its winter show.

Last year, officials for the show announced it would remain in Salt Lake City for another five years, contingent on the expansion of the Salt Palace and a state commitment to protecting recreational areas. In July, the first phase of the expansion was completed, as 145,000 square feet of exhibit space was added.

The additional space, currently a cement slab, will eventually be the floor of the expanded Salt Palace.

A 90,000-square-foot temporary pavilion now sits on the concrete slab, tripling the amount of temporary pavilion space of past years, according to Mark Bennett, a spokesman for the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"Normally those pavilions are secured by driving stakes in the ground or screws into the structure," Bennett said. "We couldn't do that so we came up with a ballast system to where we've got 402 cement ballasts. Collectively, they weigh 1.6 million pounds. These ballasts are what provide the stability for the pavilion."

An underground parking structure is positioned beneath the slab and is capable of accommodating about 400 vehicles.

"How we're pulling off this expansion is unprecedented," Bennett said. "It's kind of a model for other cities."

When completed, the Salt Palace will expand by 40 percent at a cost of $52 million. Bennett said the five-year Outdoor Retailer contract is worth $160 million. The expansion has resulted in future convention bookings, Bennett said, worth $56 million in direct spending.

Lori Crabtree, a spokeswoman for Outdoor Retailer, said roughly 100 exhibitors were turned away from last year's summer event due to space limitations. And even with this year's expanded pavilion, 30 exhibitors were turned away.

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com