Via RGJ today, Downtown Reno’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display has been canceled this year. The display is funded by a combination of city funds and money from the downtown casinos. With tax revenues declining in Reno, the city decided not to spend its part of the $20 – 30K, and according to Glenn Carano of Silver Legacy, “[…] the quality is not what we would want.”
This blog has spoken before about the room for growth in tourism to Reno and the need to have solid special events on holidays in non-summer months. If the hotels are booked solid for NYE in Reno as some of the RGJ’s commenters suggest, then cutting the fireworks seems like a strange way to reward those who decided to celebrate their NYE in Reno. The show should go on, and those in a position to do something about the level of quality of the fireworks show should plan ahead to make next year’s display something worth writing home about.
What I didn't like was news reports of one of the Carano family shrugging it off as "bad economy," and "letting people keep their jobs," etc. That might be true, but really? Is the Fitzgerald's REALLY the straw that broke the camel's back for not having all of the casinos just ponying up and doing the show? Is it REALLY going to be "...better inside the casinos anyway?" I don't even like the NYE fireworks and I thought this decision was crap.
KW
Posted by: Kyle Weiss | December 31, 2008 at 05:50 AM