One of the main local players behind the biggest retail show in Utah is threatening that the Outdoor Retailer semiannual trade shows could be moved to another state, perhaps Colorado, leaving a $24 million hole in Utah's economy.
It all boils down to anger over Gov. Mike Leavitt's surprise deal with the Bush administration to cut back on wilderness protection in Utah.
But is Peter Metcalf, co-founder of Black Diamond Equipment Ltd., just a one-man force behind the protest?
He says there are other retailers who are plenty upset as well.
"This is a hot topic right now," Metcalf said. "The phone lines are abuzz."
But the show manager said he hasn't heard from any specific companies.
On April 11, Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced they had reached a settlement that unravels wilderness protections on nearly 6 million acres in Utah.
The Department of Interior, in settling the case, has agreed to remove interim protections now afforded to those potential wilderness areas identified after 1991 and to discard its current wilderness policies, articulated in the "Wilderness Handbook." In exchange, the state of Utah agreed to drop its 1996 lawsuit against the Department of Interior when then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was at the helm.
It has prompted outrage by not only conservationists who are legally challenging the deal but also recreationists.
"Does the outdoor industry want to associate with a state that clearly makes a statement that we just don't need these couple of million acres of wilderness? That's a profound slap at this industry and at the millions of participants," Metcalf said.
Peter Devin, the show manager with VNU Business Media Tradeshow Co., said he hasn't heard of any specific complaints from retailers wanting to pull out of Utah. "We're not taking a political stand. The venue is wonderful. We support it 100 percent."
However, he said the outdoor industry as a whole is very adamant about making sure there are plenty of places for customers to play.
Metcalf pushed to bring the Outdoor Retailer trade shows to Utah seven years ago by promoting Utah as the perfect spot for hosting such a convention.
"We can't have a more perfect personification than this state," Metcalf said. "I'm a good booster of Utah." He moved his company to Salt Lake City from Ventura, Calif., in 1990, and having the largest trade show in the world in Utah made sense.
"It put a place in the public eye that this is ground zero for outdoor recreation," Metcalf said.
The semiannual show, held in August and January, is the largest of its kind. More than 19,000 people, buyers and sellers pass through the Salt Palace Convention Center to look at the latest in outdoor recreation equipment and gear.
"It's an extremely important show," said Jason Mathis, spokesman for the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We depend on the show for revenue in the summer and winter."
Each trade show generates between $10 million and $12 million in direct out-of-state spending, he said. The bureau even has a staffer who works mostly full time organizing the outdoor trade shows, Mathis said. "That's how important this is to us."
The Outdoor Retailer show has a contract with the convention bureau until 2005.
Metcalf, whose climbing equipment manufacturing company employs 250 people in Salt Lake City, said he doesn't anticipate retailers pulling out of Utah any time soon, at least not for the summer trade show. But it's clearly going to be a topic for future discussions, he said.
What other site could host such a show?
Denver, Metcalf said. "I'm sure Colorado would love to have the business."
E-mail: donna@desnews.com