The 14-member executive committee of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau's board of trustees held an emergency meeting Thursday and authorized spending $57,000 to build a temporary structure that will help the city host the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
With a promise from Salt Lake County Commissioner Jim Bradley for another $28,000 to make up the $85,000 cost of the structure, Richard E. Davis, bureau president, will go to Reno, Nev., next week and assure trade show officials that Salt Lake City will have enough space.Even when the Salt Palace Convention Center remodeling and expansion is completed in 1995, it still will be too small to host the trade show without the 34,000-square-foot temporary structure, which will be built in parking lots west of the Salt Palace.
Davis said the economic impact to the area from the trade show, sponsored by Outdoor Retailer Magazine, is $50 million for the three years since 15,000 people will attend each one. He said the county's portion of the money will come from discretionary money available from hotel taxes collected to pay off the Salt Palace mortgage bonds and the bureau's portion will come from transient room taxes.