Los Angeles and Anaheim slug it out over the convention floor

That long-awaited Freeway Series between the Dodgers and Angels is on shaky ground, but there’s at least one contest already underway between Los Angeles and Anaheim -- it’s just not being fought on a baseball diamond.

With tourism in a steep slump, the convention bureaus for both cities are in a pitched battle to win lucrative trade shows and conventions, which bring millions of dollars in revenue through rental fees, hotel bed taxes and the tourist dollars spent by conventioneers.

Although Anaheim has long been the dominant player, recent improvements to Los Angeles’ downtown area are making it more competitive -- escalating the rivalry even more.

“The competition is civil, but it’s fierce,” said Steven Hacker, president of the International Assn. of Exhibitions and Events, a trade group.

Although the two cities have always competed for business, Hacker and other industry experts say the rivalry has taken on added importance because of the economic downturn and shrinking corporate travel budgets.

“It’s a tough market, and people are offering the world to get the big conventions,” said Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau.

Anaheim and Los Angeles recently duked it out in a battle to book NAMM, the trade group for music retailers and manufacturers, which holds one of the nation’s largest and most coveted conventions. Anaheim won, getting a hard-fought contract extension after NAMM openly flirted with relocating to Los Angeles.

The two cities also recently warred over the Wizard World comic book convention that Anaheim swiped from Los Angeles. Los Angeles, for its part, recently nabbed the Craft and Hobby Assn. convention for four gatherings over the next 10 years, ending an exclusive deal with Anaheim.

Historically, Anaheim has landed the bigger and more prestigious conventions, thanks in part to its abundance of nearby hotel rooms and proximity to Disneyland and other tourist attractions.

In recent years, however, downtown Los Angeles has beefed up its lineup -- starting with Staples Center, home of the Lakers and Clippers basketball teams and hockey’s Kings. The new LA Live entertainment complex offers the 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre, the smaller Club Nokia, a 14-screen movie house and several trendy restaurants such as Katsuya and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill.

Hotel rooms within easy walking distance are still in short supply, but that problem will be remedied in part with the opening in February of the 1,001-room Marriott Marquis and the JW Marriott-Ritz-Carlton hotel complex.

“Los Angeles now really has a product to offer which allows us to compete with other major convention destinations,” said Mark Liberman, president and chief executive of LA Inc., the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Even so, Anaheim still outbats L.A. when it comes to large conventions. Last year, Anaheim was host to eight of the country’s 200 largest conventions, compared with only three for Los Angeles.

Hotel rooms are a big reason. Conventioneers can choose from nearly 4,500 hotel rooms within a quarter-mile of the Anaheim Convention Center, compared with only 900 rooms that close to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

With hotel rooms within walking distance, convention planners can avoid paying for buses to shuttle attendees to and from hotels, at a cost of about $3 per attendee per day.

“It’s absolutely a major selling point to have hotels within a quarter-mile,” said Doug Ducate, president of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.

And if an abundance of hotel rooms and exhibition space doesn’t seal the deal, Anaheim can always mention the city’s most popular attraction, Disneyland -- a huge draw for conventioneers with children in tow.

To outsiders, conventions and trade shows might seem like parties disguised as business gatherings. But conventions and trade shows represent a huge windfall of taxes, fees and spending to cities.

Adding up all the spending of a typical conventioneer -- including lodging, meals, cab fare and entertainment -- each person attending a convention generates as much as $1,500 in revenue to the host city, according to industry studies.

Last year, the annual NAMM meeting drew about 85,000 visitors and generated about $75 million in taxes, fees and other revenues for the Anaheim area.

So, it was no surprise that Los Angeles and Anaheim lobbied hard to book NAMM when its contract at Anaheim was scheduled to end next year. NAMM has held the event in Anaheim for the last 33 years, except for a stint from 1998 through 2000 when it moved to L.A. during convention center construction in Anaheim.

After considering offers by both cities, NAMM decided this year that it would stay in Anaheim until at least 2013.

Anaheim won the duel primarily because the Anaheim Convention Center is nearly 100,000 square feet bigger than the Los Angeles Convention Center, and NAMM was already close to outgrowing Anaheim’s meeting venue, said Kevin Johnstone, director of trade shows for NAMM. Another reason for choosing Anaheim, he said, was the abundance of hotel rooms.

“Anaheim is very unique and desirable,” he said.

Liberman of LA Inc. said his staff tried to book NAMM by offering low rates on exhibit space and hotel rooms. Despite the setback, he vowed to continue to go after NAMM and other big conventions.

“We will continue to pursue, pursue, pursue,” he said. “We will not let up at all.”

One reason Liberman is so optimistic is the scheduled Feb. 15 opening of the massive hotel complex about a block from the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Adjacent to the hotels will be a 77,000-square-foot meeting hall that has already been booked for several trade group meetings next year.

Liberman said the new hotel complex, plus the addition of the LA Live entertainment center, has given Los Angeles the firepower to compete with Anaheim and other big-league competitors.

The new venues are already having an effect, he said.

One example is the ASCD, formerly the Assn. for Supervision and Curriculum Development. About 11,000 people gather at the convention, which promotes the professional development of educators. The group’s convention planners recently chose Los Angeles over Anaheim and other cities for conventions in 2014 and 2020.

Takiyah Jefferson, meeting manager for ASCD, said Los Angeles offered great hotel and exhibition space rates and an exciting downtown atmosphere, including LA Live and the new hotel complex.

“There is a lot of buzz going on in downtown L.A.,” she said.

The intense freeway competition between Los Angeles and Anaheim reflects a tougher atmosphere for the convention industry nationwide.

Last year, convention planners nationwide booked 21% fewer rooms at convention halls compared with 2007 and rented about 8% less exhibition space, according to a survey of more than 500 convention planners by the Professional Convention Management Assn.

That has intensified rivalry among all convention cities, and now Los Angeles and Anaheim are feeling the heat from another competitor: Las Vegas.

Sin City -- ranked last year as the nation’s top convention city -- was host to 44 of the 200 largest conventions in the country. Las Vegas dominates its competitors with sheer numbers: 1.9 million square feet of exhibition space, 3.2 million square feet of gross space and 17,900 hotel rooms within a mile of the center.

But the recession has cut Las Vegas convention attendance nearly 60% this summer compared with last summer, and now Las Vegas convention bookers are pulling out all the stops to bring conventioneers back by offering steep discounts on hotel rates and exhibition space.

CA World, a conference of information technology users, was scheduled to meet twice in Los Angeles between 2010 and 2020. The gathering was expected to bring more than 30,000 room nights to the city. Instead, CA World organizers announced this week plans to hold the next convention at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

A spokeswoman for the convention declined to detail the discounts Las Vegas offered to lure it away from Los Angeles but said Las Vegas was “aggressive” in helping planners cut costs.

“This is a new era, as of two years ago,” said Hacker of the convention trade group. “Virtually everything is negotiable.”

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hugo.martin@latimes.com