By Chris Jones, Las Vegas Review-Journal Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 9--Hoping to slam a home run where others struck out, a new management team believes a change in business strategy can soon revive the former All-American SportPark complex.
Located at 121 E. Sunset Road just east of Las Vegas Boulevard South, the nearly $40 million project has been largely dormant since May 2001 when developer All-American SportPark Inc. ceded control of the site to landlord Urban Land Co. of Nevada to help pay off debt.
Though some consumers still use the park's batting cages and other outdoor amenities, its 100,000-square-foot main building has been closed for more than two years.
Southern California businessmen Donald Bredberg and Larry Steinberg believe they've found a diamond in the rough, however. They see the complex's indoor climbing wall, 3,000-seat concert area, putting green and various food and beverage areas as ideal places for staging midsize public meetings, private parties, sports fantasy camps, concerts and other special events catering to big-time gamblers, conventioneers and other VIPs who frequent local casinos.
'We think this is going to be the coolest special-events place on the West Coast,' Bredberg said. 'We can really serve that midlevel marketplace for outside meetings, and every convention that comes to town has parties. We're really going after that.'
To that end, Bredberg has partnered with Steinberg to form Elite Entertainment, a new company that will focus its marketing efforts on premium casino players and high-end travelers. They hope the newly christened Sports Center Las Vegas will serve as the initial marketing tool to boost their joint venture.
Bredberg's background includes stints at Universal Studios' CityWalk attraction as well as the development of some of the Fashion Show mall's entertainment amenities. For the past four years, he's headed Adventure Studios, which creates and manages specialized travel packages and events.
Through his Global Casino Management company, Steinberg has spent the past two decades developing customer marketing programs for casino clients that have included Caesars Palace, Bally's and the Desert Inn. He believes his familiarity with the high rolling-set will help bring business to Sports Center Las Vegas.
'We're going to be doing major presentations to all of these customers,' said Steinberg, who said he possesses a database with the names of more than 26,000 premium gamblers whose average credit line exceeds $20,000.
Rather than competing with casino hosts, Steinberg believes the Sports Center's unique amenities will allow Elite to work with established local companies such as MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group.
'It's a change of venue,' Steinberg said of the site's potential attractions to casino players.
Bredberg added other events may be marketed directly to prospective clients without partnering with any local casino operators.
'People come here to play golf; they go to the Grand Canyon excursions,' Bredberg said. 'We're simply looking for another thing for people to do that would be fun.'
The center's outdoor amenities will no longer be the main attraction, but Bredberg said Urban Land Co. has not decided to shut down those elements of the complex for public use.
'It will be a very small percentage of what we're going to be doing,' Bredberg said.
Financial terms of the venture weren't released, but Bredberg added the company has financing in place to push forward its plans. Elite is already in negotiation for eight events by the end of this year, and Bredberg said he hopes to operate a full schedule in 2004.
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(c) 2003, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
