The event mecca that is Las Vegas, specifically the MGM Grand, has helped the Academy of Country Music Awards show bloom to one of the yearÕs entertainment highlights.
In seven years, the show has gone from modest moorings at Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles to guaranteed sellouts at the Grand Garden Arena. Several million television viewers tune into the show, equal parts a celebration of country music and of Las Vegas, on CBS.
But in a confounding twist for the cityÕs civic leaders and officials at MGM Mirage, Las Vegas has helped the show become too large even for Las Vegas. But it is not too large for a venue that easily matches the awardsÕ stature ? Cowboys Stadium.
Academy of Country Music Executive Director Bob Romeo said Thursday the show is not guaranteed to be at the Grand Garden Arena or anywhere else in Las Vegas past AprilÕs broadcast at the MGM Grand. Instead, Romeo and academy officials are pushing hard to move the show to Cowboys Stadium in 2012.
ÒItÕs a crazy thing to say weÕve outgrown Las Vegas, and when we moved there six years ago I wouldnÕt believe I would have ever said that,Ó Romeo said. ÒBut
|the truth is, we have a dilemma in that we donÕt have enough seats to satisfy our needs.Ó Those needs include 3,000 tickets for sponsors such as Dr Pepper, the MGM GrandÕs allotment and a cut for industry VIPs. WhatÕs left over are about 1,500 tickets sold to the public in a venue that seats about 11,000, total, for the event.
Cowboys Stadium can bring in an audience of up to 60,000, which would be the largest attendance ever for an awards show like the Country Music Awards.
ÒLast year, the lack of tickets available to the public generated 5,000 e-mails to our office,Ó Romeo said. ÒWe had several thousand angry fans, and we need to do something about it.Ó
Nothing is settled, Romeo stressed, between academy officials and Cowboys Stadium. No papers have been signed to move the show from Las Vegas.
It would cost Òmillions of dollarsÓ in increased production costs to move the show from the now-intimate Grand Garden Arena to the behemoth Cowboys Stadium, Romeo said.
However, officials from Texas have attended the past two shows at MGM Grand. Texas is known for its healthy appetite for major events and its willingness to use public money to draw such events to big venues ? and none is larger than Cowboys Stadium, which drew nearly 51,000 for the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey bout in March and attracted 110,000 for this yearÕs NBA All-Star Game. The domed stadium featuring the famous ÒJerryVisionÓ high-definition screen (Jerry, of course, being Cowboys owner Jerry Jones) looming over the surface, is also hosting next yearÕs Super Bowl.
To finance such high-profile spectacles, the Texas Event Trust Fund uses revenue from a6 percent statewide tax on hotel rooms.
If the money to meet those costs can be raised, itÕs bye-bye not just to the awards show, but to the peripheral events that made the ACM event a citywide country celebration in Las Vegas.
Tied to this yearÕs event were packed concerts at Fremont Street Experience headlined by Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert, Kenny ChesneyÕs 3D red carpet movie premiere at Town SquareÕs Rave Motion Pictures, and a Brooks & Dunn tribute the night after the awards show at MGM Grand.
Absent, of course, is a facility in the middle of the action that can accommodate the academyÕs need for additional seats. And Las Vegas is hardly blazing a trail in that direction.
On May 18, representatives of arena projects proposed for the Las Vegas area, including three on the Strip, appeared before the Clark County Commission. Texas-based IDM proposes a $750 million arena on the former Wet Õn Wild site off Sahara Avenue; Las Vegas Arena Foundation, a nonprofit group, wants to build a $488 million arena on property that HarrahÕs Entertainment owns behind Imperial Palace; and developer Garry Goett is looking to build a $600 million arena on 260 acres he owns near Las Vegas Boulevard, south of the Strip. Also appearing before the commission were representatives from Cordish Cos., which aims to develop an arena downtown.
The presentations were met by a skeptical County Commission, not eager to allocate public money for any arena, and arguments from MGM Mirage executive Bill Hornbuckle, who said his company would be at a disadvantage when competing for events with a venue backed by public money. And all the Strip projects would require some sort of taxpayer funding.
Speaking only for the academy, Romeo said a 20,000-to-25,000-seat venue would make staying in Las Vegas highly attractive, and that his organization would still partner with MGM Mirage officials to secure hotel rooms (up to 8,000 was his estimate) and host the support concerts and events. The pre- and post-show parties, too, could be held at MGM Mirage properties ? or anywhere else on the Strip.
ÒI donÕt think MGM Grand would lose money if that were to happen, I really donÕt,Ó he said. ÒIf we have our all-star jam (concert) at the MGM Grand, people would be screaming for tickets. We need their hotel rooms.Ó
MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said he understood the business rationale of moving the show to a venue as large as Cowboys Stadium.
ÒIf he sees a better financial package with 100,000 seats, and if thatÕs what you want your awards show to look like, then thatÕs a legitimate decision for him to make,Ó Feldman said. ÒWe just donÕt have 100,000 seats.
ÒBut separate and apart from a two- or three-hour event is looking at the integrity of the event over two or three days ? of finding rooms at a good price, and having access to everything that goes on here.Ó
And even Romeo said heÕs not certain artists would want to move out of Las Vegas permanently. ÒThey love coming to Las Vegas. Kix Brooks can meet Keith Urban at Craftsteak (at MGM Grand), then hit the craps tables. Spouses can go shopping, you can see a show and have great dining, all in very close proximity. We listen to our artists, too, because without them there is no show.Ó
But Romeo also said, ÒI know a lot of artists who have never had the chance to play before 60,000 people who would love to have that chance. It would be a dream come true to them, and to thousands of fans who canÕt see the show live in Las Vegas.Ó
Although Romeo said a move to Cowboys Stadium is at the moment a 50-50 prospect, his vision is so specific that it seems highly likely the event has one foot out the door. Even the ticket prices have been investigated, with the cost close to what fans are charged at the Grand Garden Arena, between $150 and $450.
In a move certain to raise eyebrows of Las Vegas tourism officials, Romeo said he plans to use the 2011 telecast in April to promote and sell tickets to 2012Õs show at Cowboys Stadium.
ÒWe intend to take advantage of those 13 million viewers,Ó he said. ÒWeÕll give them a website where they can order tickets online, live, during the telecast.Ó
The telecast from Las Vegas, being used to promote a show at Cowboys Stadium. Maybe we should tweak that famous marketing slogan: What happens here, stays here. Until it doesnÕt.
kats@lasvegassun.com / 990-7720
Copyright 2010  Las Vegas Sun
