By Don Muret, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

CSL International, pending Las Vegas City Council approval in the coming weeks, plans to solicit interest from private developers that would like to build a new downtown arena. The consultant will put together a proposal that will lead to the selection of a developer in the next two months. Sites under consideration include an 11-acre parcel next to City Hall that was among several locations identified by a local task force studying the issue.

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Pepsi Center To Have Work Done Ahead Of ’08 Democratic National Convention

Due to its hosting of the ’08 Democratic National Convention, Pepsi Center will undergo ten weeks of renovations costing “at least $15[M],” according to James Paton of the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS. Construction teams will “yank out lower-level seats, knock down luxury suite walls, haul in massive amounts of steel to reinforce the ceiling, erect a huge building in a parking lot to accommodate the media, and bring in new technology and miles of wire and cable.” When the event is over they will “swiftly restore the [arena] to the way it was before.” The work will begin in early July ’08 during the offseasons of the arena’s main tenants — the Nuggets, Avalanche and NLL Mammoth. TD Banknorth Garden President John Wentzell, whose arena hosted the ’04 Democratic National Convention, indicated that the renovation expense “easily surged past the $10[M] mark” (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 2/16).

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION: In St. Paul, John Shipley reports the Wild could be “headed as far as Europe” when the R08 Republican National Convention takes over the Xcel Energy Center September 1-4, a week before the opening of the team’s training camp. The convention will require “substantial changes” to the arena and as a result, Wild President & GM Doug Risebrough said that the team will “have to train elsewhere” (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 2/16).

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