Parking at Cashman may get $1 pricier

One dollar might not sound like much, but think of the local goodies you could snag with a mere buck.

If you're a Las Vegas 51s fan, you could buy a beer at Cashman Field on Thursdays during the baseball team's season. Or you could grab a stadium hot dog on Mondays. Craft-show lovers could stop by the Great Craft Festival inside Cashman Center through Sunday and pick up a small hair accessory or a Christmas ornament.

But come Jan. 1, consumers might need that extra $1 to park at Cashman.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which operates the complex, will consider raising Cashman's parking fees from $3 to $4. The authority says it must raise what it charges to use Cashman, because the bureau loses $3.5 million to $4.5 million a year operating the center. The authority is also considering raising rental fees for the hall. The rates would go from $3,000 to $4,000 a day for public events, and from $6,130 to $7,110 a day for trade shows.

Authority spokesman Vince Alberta said the increases wouldn't completely erase operating losses, but they'd trim deficits noticeably, depending on how many shows continue to use the facility. In fiscal 2009, 112 public events and 41 meetings happened at Cashman.

But show promoters and industry observers question the wisdom of any policy that puts more costs on consumers amid a recession.

"As any economist would tell you, any increase in any type of price in this economy is not a good thing," said Cameron Meier, editor of Sunshine Artist, a Florida trade magazine for craft-show exhibitors, promoters and customers. "If you look at arts-and-crafts shows in general, most promoters and venues are trying to keep costs fairly steady."

Keeping expenses stable is essential to maintaining customer volume, said Steve Powers, a California show promoter who's mounted the Great Craft Festival at Cashman since 1983.

"I've seen this movie before. Facilities raise fees, drive the public away and kill commercial shows," Powers said. "In the long term, they make less money than they did before raising rates. What makes it more difficult here is that Las Vegas is the Land of Free Parking. The only place you pay for (trade-show) parking is here and at the Las Vegas Convention Center."

Powers said he's not too worried about the jump in Cashman's hall-rental rates, because those have been stable. But in the parking lot, where cash-strapped consumers would directly see increases, it's a different story. Powers said he believes higher parking tabs could transform Cashman's parking expenses from "an irritation" into a deal-breaker that pushes away customers, some of whom will spend as little as $5 inside the exhibition hall.

Meier said an increase from $3 to $4 probably wouldn't be too significant for most consumers.

"Most people who really want to go to a show will still go even if they have to pay a small fee for parking," he said. "As long as it's under $5, it doesn't seem to impact things that much. But it is hard to say. Any increase at all will have some effect. It's just a question of how much."

The impact could be substantial, Powers said. He quit holding a show at the Reno Convention Center after a similar fee scenario played out in the 1980s and 1990s.

The center went from charging nothing for parking in 1981 to charging $1 in 1985. A few years later, the rate jumped to $3, and visitor traffic at his show slowed dramatically, he said. The cost rose once more, to $5, and his customer base halved. He threw in the towel in 2002.

If he did the same here, the economic impact could be substantial. Powers said he spends as much as $120,000 putting together the Great Craft Festival, including $50,000 in local advertising, $4,000 in city of Las Vegas license fees and retainers for security and electrical contractors. His event generates up to $18,000 in sales taxes. Of his 200 exhibitors, about 70 are locals who make a living as artists and craftspeople.

"I can guarantee, if they do this, five years from now, if you look at their books, they will have a lot fewer consumer shows than they have now," he said.

Alberta said the authority doesn't expect to lose business at Cashman because of higher fees.

Parking rates last rose in 1998, from $2 to $3, and a $1 increase in a decade is not unreasonable, he said.

Plus, the authority sees Cashman as a community center, so it's worked to keep the building's overall costs low, Alberta said. If you include all expenses involved in using Cashman, the facility remains one of the most competitively priced meeting centers in Las Vegas, he added. Promoters who fret that parking costs will deter business can absorb the fees when they rent Cashman so their patrons can park for free. He also said Powers is the only Cashman user thus far to criticize the potential increase.

Don Logan, general manager of the 51s, didn't respond to a request for comment by press time, but a receptionist who answered the phone in the team's front office said the parking-fee increase was the talk of the office Thursday.

The authority's board will consider the new fees during its monthly meeting Tuesday.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.