Park perks include beat-the-heat seats plus feast for eyes
The Las Vegas Ballpark will have some cool seats, much cooler than the metal bench seats of Cashman Field.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors on Tuesday received an update on the $150 million baseball stadium being built in Downtown Summerlin by the Howard Hughes Corp., owners of the Las Vegas Aviators.
Don Logan, president and chief operating officer of the Aviators, the AAA franchise affiliated with the Oakland A’s, said seat comfort would be a major upgrade from the Cashman Field stadium, with 100 percent of the seats being 4Topps Airflow individual mesh seats. The stadium will seat 10,000 fans.
“This speaks to our commitment to do this right,” he said.
Logan and Tom Warden of the Howard
Hughes Corp. said a 4,000-squarefoot Daktronics video board — the largest in minor league baseball and larger than screens in five major league stadiums — is being built in left field.
Professional Sports Catering has been selected as the food vendor, beating out Centerplate, the Las Vegas Convention Center provider, and Aramark, the Cashman Center contractor. New food offerings are planned in a kitchen Logan said he hopes will be completed by the opening.
He also said Cox Business will be the technology provider and is installing a distributive antenna system for wireless communications.
To help finance the stadium, the LVCVA is pitching in $80 million through a stadium naming agreement. Logan told board members that 1,500 workers, 98 percent of them union laborers, will have worked on the project by the time the stadium opens April 9.
Board members also took time out from the meeting to sign a memorandum of understanding between the LVCVA, the Las Vegas Metro
Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Technology Association designating the chamber as the World Trade Center Business Club.
The Las Vegas Convention Center is the only World Trade Center in the world housed in a convention facility, and the designation will enable the chamber to foster business relationships with travelers to the center on business.
LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill signed the memorandum, as did LVCVA board director Mary
Beth Sewald, who also is president and CEO of the chamber; chamber Chairman Terry Shirey; and Cindy Hoag, senior director of the Consumer Technology Association, sponsor of the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas, which brings more than 180,000 visitors to the city
each year.
Board members also signed off on three marketing requests totaling $850,000.
The LVCVA will back a request for $210,000 for expenses exhibiting at IMEX Frankfurt, a three-day travel trade show in Germany in May; $290,000 for expenses exhibiting at the U.S. Travel Association fiveday IPW trade show in Anaheim, California; and $350,000 to host the three-day, 24th annual Boyd Group International Aviation Forecast Summit in August.
Board members also approved a $113,000 separation agreement with legal counsel Luke Puschnig, who is leaving the LVCVA after 20 years.
Under terms of the separation agreement, Puschnig will receive 26 weeks of separation pay, nine months of insurance continuation and all compensation and paid time off accrued through his last day, which is expected to be by June 30.
At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Hill and board representatives applauded Puschnig for his work ethic and loyalty to the organization.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702477-3893. Follow @Rickvelotta on Twitter.