Cashman Center Celebrates Anniversary
Diane Taylor -- Tradeshow Week, 4/10/2008 12:26:00 PM
By 1983, Steve Powers had been holding craft shows in several Western U.S. cities when he heard through the grapevine that Las Vegas was building new exhibit space. For the Great Craft Festival, taking place April 18-20, Powers will return to that exhibit space, having been its first tenant and a return tenant once or twice a year for all of the building’s 25-year history.
Powers’ chosen space is Cashman Center, a multi-use facility on a 55-acre site near downtown Las Vegas. The building housing exhibit halls, a theater and meeting rooms has seen everything from garden shows and cheerleading contests to naturalization ceremonies and “The Sound of Music.” A baseball stadium seating 10,000 has been home to concerts, high school sports and major and minor league baseball.
On April 8, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority held its board meeting in one of Cashman Center’s 12 meeting rooms, and part of the agenda was a celebration of the building’s 25-year history.
Cashman Center is owned and operated by the LVCVA. It is a 534,000 square foot facility, with 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and 17,500 sq. feet of meeting space. Its theater seats 1,900, and its parking lot has 2,500 spaces.
In 2007, Cashman Center hosted 225 events. In 2009, the U.S. Bowling Congress Open Championships, with an expected attendance of 80,000, will take place there from February through July.
On hand for the 25-year celebration were three members of the Cashman family: Mary Cashman and her children, Leah Benjamin and Tim Cashman. Mary Cashman’s father-in-law, “Big Jim” Cashman, was initially responsible for obtaining the parcel that is now home to the center.
When construction on Hoover Dam was done and Las Vegas seemed bereft of excitement, Cashman and the Elks Lodge decided to sponsor a rodeo and Western-themed festival called Helldorado Days. It was so popular that it outgrew its original staging areas. The Union Pacific Railroad agreed to donate a large parcel of land for future celebrations, and, according to Mary Cashman, the local Union Pacific executives were good friends of Jim Cashman, Sr. and insisted that the family name be part of the deal.
Although the Cashman family did not personally donate the land or have a role in constructing the building, Mary Cashman said that they did make possible the original stadium used for the rodeo.
“It’s a little-known fact that the original stadium was built with volunteer labor,” she said.
Jim Cashman Sr. and Jr. worked tirelessly on the project, she added, and even recruited the women in the family to cook lunch for the workers.
Cashman Field in its current form was part of the 1983 project.
