Convention Center Rental in Reno, NV

The only convention center large enough to house a competition of this magnitude in Reno, Nevada is the Reno Sparks Convention Center and Authority.

The Metal and Nonmetal National Mine Rescue Competition was first held in 1973 at Las Vegas, Nevada. The state of Nevada was originally chosen because of its central location relative to the metal and nonmetal mining community. The event was moved to Reno, Nevada in 2002 because the Las Vegas Visitor's Bureau increased the fees of their convention center several hundred percent, thereby pricing their facilities far beyond the Mine Safety and Health Administration's budget. Consequently, other cities were researched considering factors such as location, availability of accommodating convention floor space, hospitality rates, airfare, other travel expenses and government per diem rates. The research concluded that the City of Reno and the Reno/Sparks Convention Visitor Authority's (RSCVA) convention center proved to be the best value.

Extensive outreach to the nation's metal and nonmetal mine rescue community ensued for nearly a year in order to ensure the community that the new location could comfortably accommodate the event. The outreach came at substantial expense to the government.

In 2010, as has been standard practice of the event planning committee, this venue was compared with other cities in the western United States. Once again, the city of Reno and the RSCVA convention center proved to be the best value when compared to the cities of Denver, Colorado and Dallas, Texas.