What happens in Vegas
"We've been busy all day preparing a complaint," said Mike Olsen, of Goodsell & Olsen, the attorneys for Sunset Racing. That complaint was filed today, Monday, September 18. It alleges that Lake Las Vegas Resort reneged on a contract with its client, Sunset Racing, to host a triathlon on the 10th of September, 2011.
That weekend should ring a bell with triathletes. It's the weekend of next year's Ironman 70.3 World Championship, slated to take place at Lake Las Vegas, in the City of Henderson, hosted by the Loews Hotel.
Pursuant to the complaint Sunset Racing is "seeking injunctive relief," according to Olsen, "asking the court to prohibit the holding of their event, forcing Lake Las Vegas to honor their contract."
The race Sunset Racing is hoping to prohibit is the recently announced Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Henderson, Nevada, on the 11th of September, 2011.
The 70.3 Worlds is slated to be held at Lake Las Vegas Resort. This is a popular venue for triathlons. WTC (World Triathlon Corporation, producers of the Ironman brand of endurance events) announced that Frank Lowery (of Silverman fame) will produce both a short-course race as part of its newly-announced 5150 series event along with Ironman's 70.3 World Championship.
Lowery will also produce the ITU Long Course World Championship race in November, meaning Lowery will have brought to Lake Las Vegas three high-profile events to be staged over a three-month period in Autumn of 2011.
Sunset Racing, owned by Keith Hughes and Dominic Guinto, has for a half-dozen years produced at this venue XTERRA events, a race on the Amica Triathlon Series circuit, and other triathlons popular with locals.
Hughes and Guinto sent an email to Lake Las Vegas Resort, as they have done for the past six years, requesting dates for several races in 2011. These dates were for the Showdown at Sundown to be held on March 26th; an XTERRA event on April 8th, and for the race in September 10th: a stop on the Amica Triathlon Series calendar.
Lake Las Vegas replied to that email, according to Olsen, in the affirmative. This email triggered the go-ahead his clients needed to move forward in event preparation.
Not so fast
"Shortly after receiving this email confirming these days for 2011," said Olsen, "Sunset Racing became aware that Lake Las Vegas and the City of Henderson had been in conversations with a competing triathlon organization. Sunset Racing eventually determined that it was WTC."
Sunset Racing then attempted to sell either the race or the date to WTC, according to Olsen. That overture was conveyed to Frank Lowery, through an intermediary at the City of Henderson.
The City of Henderson reported back that "WTC was not interested in buying the race or the date." This, according to Olsen.
Shortly after this series of exchanges, Sunset Racing held a race at Lake Las Vegas on September 11th of this year. Within a week or two of that race, Sunset Racing was contacted by Lake Las Vegas, and told the resort was not only pulling Sunset Racing's September date, but all its 2011 race dates.
Course of Dealing
Olsen maintains the earlier email from Lake Las Vegas confirming race dates was the method by which Lake Las Vegas traditionally signaled "go" to Sunset Racing. It was at this point—on receipt of this confirming email—that the race organizer could commence planning, attracting sponsors, taking registrations, and, in the case of that date on September 10, warrant to the Amica Triahthon Series (or any other series) organizers that this slot on their tour had been filled.
"Sunset Racing has a history over the past six years of putting on triathlon events at Lake Las Vegas," explained Olsen, which means there has been in place a 'course of dealings' with Lake Las Vegas.
"The way that has worked in the past six years," explains Olsen, is that "Sunset Racing would select their event dates, forward dates to Lake Las Vegas, who'd review their calendar, confirm those dates back to Sunset Racing in writing. Concurrently, Sunset Racing would also submit a 'Right Of Entry.' Lake Las Vegas, on 8/5/10, as per its normal course of dealings, confirmed Sunset Racing's events for 2011."
Still, these ROEs are not official until returned by Lake Las Vegas, signed and approved. So, why did Lake Las Vegas simply argue that they've made a change in direction—they've traded up to a bigger event—and the ROEs would not for 2011 be forthcoming?
"Sometimes these ROEs would arrive a matter of two or three weeks prior to a race," argued Olsen. "That was the rule, not the exception."
Obviously race organizers can't start to prepare for an event two or three weeks prior to its date. Therefore, Lake Las Vegas seemed to treat the signing of its ROEs as ministerial acts, rather than as documents upon which Sunset Racing would rely for permission prior to planning an event.
Ironman keeping its distance
WTC seems keenly aware that its presence at a venue, and in a town, is sweeping. While it has had an Iron Girl race at Lake Las Vegas for some years, its footprint in Henderson is about to grow exponentially. It has therefore—as opposed to and perhaps in response to recent events in Muncie, Indiana—been quick to make clear that it's not applying local pressure in Henderson.
"We have never dealt with anyone at Lake Las Vegas, Loews [Hotel], [The City of] Henderson, relative to any restrictive clause, exclusivity, never even as a thought," said Steve Meckfessel, Ironman's Chief Operations Officer.
Ironman has historically, "lived up to our commitments, to those at Lake Las Vegas," reminds Meckfessel. "We've made similar commitments [to Lake Las Vegas] with 5150, and an NBC show. Ultimately it's up to the businesses, resorts, to figure out what's best for them."
"But we don't have any expectation of exclusivity," said Meckfessel, to counter any charge of strong-arming the locals.
"We've had broad discussions about dates relative to 70.3," continued Meckfessel. "What works best for us, the progression of pros and AGers in their preparation for Kona, is to put this event on one of two weekends. Labor Day was shot down because of the heavy boating weekend. That left the following weekend, the September 10 date. This is the last good date for us in order to tie the date to Kona."
Impact on the Autumn racing calendar
Any court case proper would not come to trial for years. The only reasonable threat to the holding of the Ironman 70.3 Championship at Lake Las Vegas is if injunctive relief is granted. Such injunction, were it to be granted, would likely happen in a very few weeks.
Lake Las Vegas Resort was contacted for this story, and did not comment.
