By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — It’s a government organization that people know by five letters — LVCVA — and right now this public agency charged with attracting tourists to Las Vegas is going through a fascinating and unusual process of soliciting bids for a job for a second time.
That’s because there were issues uncovered by LVSportsBiz.com with the way the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) awarded in March a $1.236 million contract to a Phoenix-based company called Position Sports to work on the College Football Playoff (CFP) championship game at Allegiant Stadium in Jan. 2027.
Those problems prompted the LVCVA take the unusual and rare action this month of re-bidding what’s called the “Request For Proposal” for the CFP title game job of being a liaison between the LVCVA, CFP, teams, sponsors and stadium and providing event production services.
So after the LVCVA’s Request For Proposal for this job was issued June 16, LVCVA held a virtual pre-proposal conference only two days ago to allow companies to ask questions to the public tourism organization.
The conference was run by Ed Finger, the LVCVA’s chief strategy officer and LVCVA CEO Steve Hill’s right-hand man. Lisa Motley, the former LVCVA Vice President of Sports and Special Events, is no longer with the organization.
The reason the LVCVA went to the effort to draw bids for a second time is that LVSportsBiz.com uncovered irregularities in the way the LVCVA awarded the job to Position Sports, a company that worked previously on promoting high school basketball games in Phoenix.
The Position Sports ownership page on its website shows Delano Multimedia Group, with Melissa Grossman representing the company locally at an Oct. 2024 announcement before a Raiders game at Allegiant Stadium where Position Sports said it was working with the LVCVA to put on the first college basketball games at Allegiant Stadium in Nov. 2027 before college basketball’s Final Four is held at the Raiders stadium in 2028.
Las Vegas is also hosting college football’s national championship game in Jan. 2027, so the LVCVA is playing a central role in promoting that event.
Unlike Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas in Feb. 2024 when the LVCVA had a Las Vegas Host Committee, the LVCVA is taking the game marketing job in-house. The LVCVA is also hiring a consultant to promote the event and work on game production.
And companies hoping to get that million-dollar job as the LVCVA’s CFP game consultant were asking questions to the LVCVA about the bid process this week.
Not only did the LVCVA have multiple staff members on hand at the Tuesday morning conference and is playing it by the RFP book, the agency is also answering questions from companies via emails, with the responses being posted on a state bid site.
LVSportsBiz.com has learned that at least three companies and the Las Vegas Events organization that puts on the National Finals Rodeo showed interest in the LVCVA’s college football championship game job.
Las Vegas Events spokesman Michael Mack confirmed to LVSportsBiz.com Thursday that LVE will submit a bid for the LVCVA CFP game job. The thing to keep in mind is that Las Vegas Events is the LVCVA’s non-profit arm and is funded by the LVCVA. Would that be a potential conflict of interest? The LVCVA proposal forms include one specifically on conflicts of interest. Consider that at its June board meeting, the LVCVA board members approved the Las Vegas Events production services deal for July 1 to June 30, 2026 for $6,793,000.
LVSportsBiz.com contacted Position Sports’ Grossman to see if Position Sports will submit a bid for the CFP game job again, but did not hear back.
LVSportsBiz also contacted Hill, Finger and LVCVA communications VP Molly Castano by email Thursday to discuss the bidding process. But we did not get a response from all the parties.
The deadline to submit bids for the LVCVA consulting job is July 7. The job will be awarded July 25.
PSA