South Point Hotel and Casino’s new $35 million bowling tournament facility, South Point Bowling Plaza, rolls into Las Vegas eight months early with a full schedule of tournament events that began on November 1. After signing a 12-year deal with United States Bowling Congress (USBC), Las Vegas Events (LVE) and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) in April 2013, South Point Bowling Plaza has scheduled 122 days in 2015, 210 days in 2016 and 310 days of tournament operations in 2017.
The South Point Bowling Plaza, a spacious 90,000-sf facility, features 60 lanes with two parallel rows of 30 lanes, a 360-seat viewing area and a 720-unit locker room. In addition, the USBC tournament bowling-focused center includes a 350 seat squad room equipped with a team photo booth area, stub lane, ball check station and bracket room. For the first time in history, Brunswick, Daktronics and USBC partnered to create two 167-foot state-of-the-art digital displays with static and animated advertising capabilities, spanning across the two 30-lane competition floors.
Over the span of the agreement, South Point Bowling Plaza will host several annual USBC events, including the USBC Women’s Championships in 2016 and the USBC Open Championships in 2017. The partnership will bring more than 40 additional tournaments, conventions and short duration events to Las Vegas including events such as the USBC Masters, USBC Queens, USBC Senior Masters and USBC Team USA Trials.
In 2009, the USBC Open Championships, held at Cashman Center in Las Vegas, ran for a record 154 consecutive days with a capacity total of 17,200 teams. The total estimated attendance for bowling participants and their travel parties was 292,750 with an average room stay of 4.3 nights and a non-gaming economic impact of more than $120 million. Las Vegas was also host city for the USBC Open Championships in 1986. The USBC Women’s Championships previously was held in Las Vegas in 1973 and 1983, attracting 9,644 and 14,430 teams, respectively.
With participation estimates for the seven championship events taken into account, South Point Hotel is able to accommodate hotel reservations for an estimated 27 percent of visitors, while the remaining 73 percent will occupy rooms throughout the city during events held for the duration of this agreement.
“Las Vegas and the new world-class bowling plaza at South Point Hotel and Casino offer the perfect backdrop for the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships and Women’s Championships,” said Rossi Ralenkotter, president/CEO for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “This is a strong partnership that leverages the proud heritage of bowling and a state-of-the-art, multi-million-dollar tournament facility with the excitement and energy of Las Vegas. That’s a winning combination.”
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