Las Vegas Ballpark prioritizing seat comfort

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-square-foot Daktronics video board — the largest in Minor League Baseball and larger than screens in five Major League Baseball 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.

The LVCVA is pitching in $80 million to help finance the stadium through a stadium naming agreement. Logan told board members 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 received a brief update on the construction of the new exhibition hall where 950 laborers have been working through January with between 1,100 and 1,500 expected to be on site before the project is completed by January 2021.

Terry Miller, the board’s builder representative, said the $935.1 million project is about 12 percent completed.

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 well as 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, which sponsors the annual CES trade show every year in Las Vegas bringing more than 180,000 visitors to the city.

Board members also signed off on three marketing requests totalling $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 five-day 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.

Puschnig declined comment on his future plans, saying, “I’m still working.”

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.

Board representatives and President and CEO Steve Hill applauded Puschnig for his work ethic and loyalty to the organization at the end of Tuesday’s meeting.