LETTER: Convention Center optional carpeting

"It is not unusual to have concrete floors and rented carpeting. Carpeting only makes sense when you know what the core events are going to be. It needs to be replaced every five years.

"However, many of the large venues have a mix of floor finishes. At Long Beach, for instance, most of the halls do not have carpet. At the Gaylord houses, they all are carpeted. But if it is carpeted, you are charged for floor protective plastic, billed by the foot. After all, you'd be bringing in scissors jacks, genies, and forklifts.

"In Anaheim, for example, you rent the carpet that is rolled out to order where you want it. As per my notes a long time ago, it is the rental of pipe and Drape, staging (and carpeting) and catering that makes the money, not the venue. The CC should not own the carpet, it would be brought in...besides, there is wildly insufficient storage for all the staging, drapery, carpeting, seating risers, etc. Rod Shumaker will get all the business."