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On Bicycling: New Las Vegas Events Head Man Hops On Metal Horse To Get Around Arena For National Final Rodeo Start In Las Vegas

New Las Vegas Events President Tim Keener using a bicycle to check on displays for National Finals Rodeo at Thomas & Mack Center. Photo: LVSportsBiz.com

 


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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer

As Thomas & Mack Center workers arranged souvenir shirts, installed posters and moved carts of bottled sodas for the National Finals Rodeo, a guy on a single-speed bicycle came pedaling along the arena’s main course.

It was an odd sight inside the venue where the Super Bowl of rodeos starts Thursday.

But there was no denying that it was an effective for Tim Keener, the new president of Las Vegas Events, the local promoter of the NFR, to get around the arena both inside and outside where vendors were setting up displays Wednesday.

Keener makes a pit stop on the arena’s main concourse.

“I’m on the move,” Keener told LVSportsBiz.com during a break today. “It would have taken 60 or 70 minutes to walk around outside to check  things out, but I needed only 10 minutes on a bicycle.”

Keener takes over the top job at Las Vegas from Pat Christenson, who has retired from the non-profit events arm of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA). This will be Christenson’s last NFR as LVE president. Keener got the promotion from vice president of event and operations.

The NFR is Las Vegas Events’ biggest promotion, working with the pro rodeo cowboys to not only put on the rodeo championship but also many related events such as the big country and western retail show called Cowboy Christmas at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Keener bought the used Electra two-wheeler for $50 at a thrift store in Idaho. Little did he know that it would become a tool for his job at Las Vegas Events.


 

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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