After LVSportsBiz.com Reported LVCVA Contract Bid Irregularities, LVCVA VP Of Sports And Special Events Is No Longer With Las Vegas Public Tourism Agency
ADVERTISEMENT
Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — An LVCVA vice president who played a major role for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority tourism agency to dole out millions of sponsorship dollars to sports promoters to bring their events to Las Vegas is no longer with the LVCVA, LVSportsBiz.com learned Tuesday.
LVCVA CEO Steve Hill informed the LVCVA board Friday that Lisa Motley, the tourism organization’s vice president of sports and special events, “is no longer with the LVCVA. We wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Tuesday’s LVCVA website had already removed Motley from its “Leadership Team” page.
Motley departed the LVCVA after LVSportsBiz.com reported irregularities in a $1.2 million consulting contract awarded to Position Sports events marketing firm in March after a Position Sports executive had joined the LVCVA travel group that went to research the college football national championship game in Atlanta two months earlier in January. Las Vegas is hosting the College Football Playoff (CFP) title game in 2027 and the LVCVA spent more than $70,000 on travel costs to see the CFP game operations in Atlanta five months ago.
It was unclear why Position Sports President Melissa Grossman was part of the LVCVA travel party at the CFP game in Atlanta in January if her company had not yet been named as a consultant or submitted a Request For Proposal (RFP). In early February, the LVCVA advertised for a consultant to do PR/game production work for the college football national championship game at Allegiant Stadium in Jan. 2027. Four companies, including Position Sports, submitted bids by the Feb. 24 deadline well after the CFP game in Atlanta.
A few weeks after Phoenix-based Position Sports won the contract in March, Lisa Motley told a group of women sports-business workers in Las Vegas that her former husband and best friend, Jeff Motley, had joined Position Sports as chief media officer. Jeff Motley also was part of the LVCVA travel group in Atlanta in January with the LVCVA booking rooms for Grossman and Jeff Motley while also hosting them at LVCVA restaurant meal gatherings.
After LVSportsBiz.com’s stories ran this month, the LVCVA decided a week ago to rebid the contract.
Our first story on the topic ran June 4 and raised the issue of whether the bidding was fair.
It should be noted Position Sports is working on other LVCVA-sponsored events.
Take a look at this LVCVA chart on events that the agency spends money on sponsoring. It’s tens of millions of dollars a year:
In his email to LVCVA board members, Hill wrote, “Under (LVCVA Chief Operating Officer) Brian Yost’s leadership, the Sports and Special Events team will continue to attract exceptional events to Las Vegas and build on our position as the Sports and Entertainment Capital. I you have any questions or we can be of help in any way, please feel free to contact me or Brian directly.”
While Lisa Motley did not technically award the LVCVA contract to Position Sports (LVCVA’s Purchasing Department did), she had friendships with Grossman and Jeff Motley. Lisa Motley did play a role in explaining the bid submission process to the companies vying for the CFP championship game consulting job.
The LVCVA is hiring a consultant for the 2027 college football championship game in Las Vegas because the tourism agency funded with public dollars is taking a different approach to promote the 2027 college football game than it did with the 2024 NFL Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium in Feb. 2024 had a Las Vegas host committee helmed by an executive director and included paid staffers, but the LVCVA is taking the college football national championship game promotion work in-house by using its own staffers and hiring a company for consulting work. The LVCVA board, in January, approved $40 million in spending to host the 2027 national championship game.
Brooks Downing, a college basketball promoter with a strong record of holding college hoops events in Las Vegas, hopes the LVCVA resets with new procedures and protocols for contract bidding.
“Since 2013, we have taken great pride in creating and developing quality sports content in Las Vegas. As an operator, you want to feel welcomed and supported by the community. We have set an attendance record for college basketball in the state of Nevada at T-Mobile Arena, sold out MGM Grand Arena and Lee’s Family Forum, but despite the millions of dollars of economic impact we have generated, we have always been rejected when we have requested assistance,” said Downing, founder/president of bdG Sports event marketing firm.
“I hope there’s reset, new procedures and protocols that are implemented that help grow sports tourism in the (Vegas) Valley while avoiding any inference of favoritism or conflict of interest,” Downing told LVSportsBiz.com Tuesday.
Richard Manhattan, owner of Las Vegas company Propyrion that unsuccessfully bid for the LVCVA consulting job in February, offered this reaction to LVSportsBiz.com:
“This is not an ideal outcome for anyone and it saddens me. Hosting our first ever College Football Playoff Final should be a cause for celebration,” Manhattan said.
“Frankly, there is a bigger picture issue here. In light of the recent procurement scandal with the Clark County Public Works Department, it may be time for the County Commission to consider enacting whistleblower funding for non-employees,” Manhattan said.
“County employees are already protected. Contractors, subcontractors, and even RFP proposers or job applicants who discover irregularities during the bidding or application process should be eligible for funding and protection against retaliation,” he said.
The deadline for any company to submit a bid for the consulting job on the 2027 national championship game is July 7.
PSA
