Rossi Ralenkotter
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is ready to have fun again.
And what better way to have fun than to throw a big party?
In announcing a three-year, multitiered destination innovation and leadership plan to the LVCVA board of directors, President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter announced the city would play host to a birthday party for one of the most storied boxing champions in history, Muhammad Ali.
The LVCVA will partner with MGM Resorts International and the city’s other resort companies to celebrate Ali’s 70th birthday on Feb. 18, the Saturday of the three-day Presidents Day weekend.
Never mind that Ali actually will turn 70 about a month earlier. This party will be about drawing boxing fans to Las Vegas and calling attention to the city.
“We’re going to have the biggest birthday party anybody has ever seen,” Ralenkotter told the board at this afternoon’s meeting.
The event, which is expected to spur a variety of spinoff activities at several properties, is an example of the LVCVA’s strategy of developing a series of events around a special activity, much the way the National Finals Rodeo and NASCAR races attract thousands of fans who don’t attend the main event.
The party will be staged at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, filled with local entertainers and televised. The event includes a promotional tie to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, one of the centerpieces of the city’s growing medical tourism component.
Ali, a former heavyweight boxing champion and now a philanthropist, social activist and cultural icon, suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
From 1960 to 1981, Ali won 56 of 61 matches, 37 by knockout. Seven of his fights were in Las Vegas, including title defenses against Floyd Patterson in 1965, Jerry Quarry in 1972 and Ron Lyle in 1975. Two of his last four fights were in Las Vegas when he lost to Leon Spinks in 1978 and to Larry Holmes in 1980.
The announcement of the party was the highlight of Ralenkotter’s presentation of the LVCVA’s push to bring the city back from recession.
Earlier this week, Ralenkotter addressed the editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun and described a rebound plan that would include new advertising strategies and marketing initiatives, extending leases on the city’s core convention customers and reintroducing the expansion and renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Ralenkotter showed a 15-minute video featuring 14 LVCVA executives and authority consultants explaining some of the details of plans that will be implemented to boost the city’s $36 billion tourism industry.
Billy Vassiliadis, the head of R&R Partners, the LVCVA’s contracted advertising consultant, echoed Ralenkotter’s call to action.
“I think it’s a really exciting time for us because there’s a new reality out there and a mentality that the traveling public wants to travel again,” Vassiliadis said. “They say, ‘That’s it. This is what I’ve got. I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to travel again.’ There’s no doubt in my mind that the No. 1 destination that they need to come to to escape from the crap of the last three years is Las Vegas.
“We’re going to put it out in front of them in every way, in very exciting ways and in ways that they can get it when they want it and where they want it,” he said.
The LVCVA’s marketing efforts will continue to focus on international travelers who stay longer and spend more. Ralenkotter hopes 30 percent of the city’s visitors will be from foreign countries within 10 years, up from the current 18 percent.
The agency also plans to capitalize on its status as the top trade show destination in the country. It plans to solidify lease agreements with the International Consumer Electronics Show, the Specialty Equipment Market Association and the International Council of Shopping Centers shows and other major conferences.
That also means the reintroduction of a major makeover to the Convention Center, which was put on hold in 2009. The LVCVA planned an $890 million renovation that primarily would improve access and circulation within the complex. Ralenkotter said that is still planned in a phased program that would last five to eight years and could begin as early as the first quarter of 2013.
Ralenkotter said specifics of the Convention Center makeover would be explained to the board in the first quarter of 2012.
Earlier in the meeting, the board unanimously approved spending more than $5 million for deferred maintenance and construction at the Convention Center that is separate from the phased makeover plan.
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In other business, the board approved in an 8-2 vote a 4 percent raise and a 12.5 percent bonus for Ralenkotter. That’s a $10,238 increase in Ralenkotter’s annual salary to $266,182 and a one-time bonus of $31,933 based on his current salary of $255,944.
The board followed a recommendation from a compensation committee for the increase and bonus. Ralenkotter had recommended bonuses, but not increases in base salary to the LVCVA’s executive and management team. Board members Kristin McMillan, a representative of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and Cam Walker, a Boulder City councilman, opposed the increases.
The action, regarded as a policy decision by the board, is expected to lead Ralenkotter to determine if he should offer raises and bonuses to executives and managers. Following the meeting, Ralenkotter said he hasn’t determined whether he would approve raises and bonuses or how much that would cost.
Executives and managers haven’t received performance increases in four years because raises were suspended during the recession. Union and nonunion, nonmanagement personnel have received 19.5 percent increases over those four years, LVCVA officials said.