Apr. 9, 2003 - Years of sparring over event-booking policies at Bartle Hall came to a head Tuesday when a top consumer show producer sued the city for better show dates. 

Pat Riha Productions alleged that city officials reneged on dates they promised the company in 2001 for Riha's 2004 annual Boat and RV shows. The company alleged that some of those dates were given to another show in violation of written city policies. 

The city "should not be permitted to whimsically ignore its written, established policies," said the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Jackson County Circuit Court. 

The lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction barring the city from switching show dates in violation of its policies and restoration of the 2004 dates originally pledged to Riha. 

City officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

In July 2001, Riha was tentatively awarded dates in February 2004 for its annual boat and recreational vehicle consumer shows. 

But in September 2002, the city's Department of Convention and Entertainment Centers abruptly bumped each show back one week to accommodate the 2004 World of Wheels auto show during some of the same February time frame pledged to Riha. 

Company President Patrick Riha said he and his lawyers had sought to compromise out of court, even agreeing to a city request late last week to hold off filing the lawsuit for a few days. But Riha said Tuesday that city officials had never brought a firm offer to the table. 

While he would not discuss the lawsuit, William H. LaMette, director of the Convention Centers Department, said Tuesday that his office was still awaiting word from World of Wheels show promoters on whether they would switch their dates to accommodate Riha. 

Riha's four-count breach-of-contract lawsuit is based on Bartle Hall booking policies that appear to guarantee dates once inside the 18-month window before a scheduled event. 

City officials notified Riha of the switched dates 17 months before his 2004 shows. 

"This arrangement is not acceptable," Riha attorney Robert E. Fitzgerald Jr. told the city in letter last month, because Riha has a conflicting show in late February 2004 in Johnson County that would stretch his event management staff too thin. 

"It's going to cost me thousands of dollars to hire extra part-time help, and then wonder if we can manage it all as well," Riha said. 

"We're locked in here, and we're locked in there," said Riha of his 2004 Home and Garden Show booked at the Overland Park Convention Center. 

However, Wendy Cantwell, marketing manager for the Overland Park Convention Center, said Riha's show there next February was listed as tentative. 

"We're holding space for it, but there's no signed contract yet," she said. 

Riha said he was still negotiating rental rates with Overland Park but expected to sign a contract soon. 

Riha has long been at odds with Kansas City officials over booking policies at city-owned venues. 

Booking preference is based on how much money an event generates for the city, including from rent payments, concession revenues and the city's 7.5 percent hotel tax. 

City policies permit narrow exceptions to the 18-month advance booking guarantee. A convention or trade show can be bumped if a conflicting and more lucrative convention or trade show uses at least 25 percent of Bartle Hall's exhibit space and fills at least 700 hotel rooms. 

Nonconvention events such as consumer shows can bump similar shows outside the 18-month window if they generate more money and at least $25,000 from rent and other revenue streams and if they book 100 percent of Bartle's exhibit floor. 

But the nonconvention event policy also states that booked events would not be bumped in the final 18-month window before the event. 

In an interview before Riha filed the lawsuit, Convention Centers deputy director Bill Langley said Riha's Boat Show last year generated $90,346 for the city in rent, ticket sales, electrical usage charges, concession sales and other items. Riha's 2002 RV show brought in $99,889, he said. 

The World of Wheels show last year was worth nearly twice that -- $186,079 -- Langley said. 

Riha contends that the city's preference policy is flawed and unfair to consumer-oriented events like his boat and RV shows because it does not take into account sales taxes that are generated from big-ticket items like cars and boats sold at the shows. 

"I realize the World of Wheels crowd drinks a lot of beer, thereby boosting their immediate status with the city," Riha said. "But the RV dealers routinely do $8 to $10 million in sales, far surpassing any economic impact World of Wheels has upon the community." 

The World of Wheels show is primarily an exhibit of custom and classic cars. 

"We treasure consumer shows for the money and economic value they give to the community," Langley said. "Yet these facilities were built for conventions and paid for by the taxpayers." Deciding who gets priority use, he said, "must be based on yield." 

LaMette acknowledged Riha's sales tax argument but said measuring its impact with any precision was difficult. 

"Every event creates a different revenue stream," LaMette said. "We just can't get our arms around his financial argument. And you can't give everybody the dates they want." 

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(c) 2003, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.