RENO — The biggest convention to come to northern Nevada has agreed to come back in 2011, 2013 and 2015. But in 2012, Safari Club International will be taking its 23,000 attendees, 1,100 vendors and $20 million economic impact to Las Vegas.

According to SCI president Lawrence Rudolph, the venue choice for 2014 is still up in the air.

The decision to keep the big game adventurers’ convention coming to Reno was a tough one, according to Safari Club representatives.

“I must tell you, we were thinking of going to another venue,” said Skip Donau, SCI’s site selection chairman.

However, Rudolph said that the area’s city fathers made them offers they could not refuse, including deals on lodging and accommodations. But most of all, Rudolph said the main sell for his convention was that the city leaders made SCI feel “very, very welcome.”

While SCI’s convention has been coming to Nevada for a total of 19 years, the group has been holding its annual big game hunters convention in Reno consecutively for the past nine years. In other years, they have gone to Las Vegas.

The one major sticking point that kept the club from signing on with Reno consistently for its convention was the air travel, Rudolph said.

“We are an international organization attracting people internationally,” Rudolph said, mentioning airlift capacity issues with the Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

According to airport spokeswoman Trish Tucker, Reno-Tahoe International adds flights and calls in larger capacity planes for the peak arrival and departure days around the SCI event. About 200 additional seats have been added to Delta flights on the four biggest Safari Club travel days: two days when people are coming in and two days when they are returning home. U.S. Airways also added 100 seats and American Airlines added a flight onto its schedule. Tucker did not know the specific number of people who came into the airport for the convention, however she said that regular passenger loads do increase during the event, meaning some capacity planning by the airport. The airport is also willing to reserve a runway specifically for the private jets carrying Safari Club jet setters into the convention, Tucker added. She confirmed Rudolph’s statement that airport capacity was a major talking point in getting the convention to stay in Reno. However, when the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority was wooing the large convention, the airport was not a major part of those discussions, Tucker said.

“We were not directly involved in those talks, but air service was one of the major components of discussions (we have had) with SCI,” she said. “One of the key issues was our ability to increase capacity.”

But for the years 2011, 2013 and 2015, Reno still won the convention’s economic impact dollars. “When we weighed airlift versus what the city fathers were doing for us, Reno won out,” Rudolph said. “We have a tradition here … we feel welcome here.”

The SCI convention will net about 23,000 convention attendees this year, who will travel into northern Nevada from around the world. According to Rudolph, attendance is up by more than 2,500 people over last year.

In Sparks, John Ascuaga’s Nugget gets a piece of the hotel revenue, although according to spokespeople that revenue is not as large as the event’s anchor hotels. The SCI convention’s anchor hotel is the Peppermill Hotel Casino.

“We get a couple hundred room nights out of the main convention,” said Nugget spokeswoman and RSCVA board member Beth Cooney.

Cooney added that the convention brings a gun show to the Nugget that nets additional room nights. However, she added that the hotel is not sold out as it is during some Sparks-based special events, such as Hot August Nights.

“It is better than we do normally,” she said. “This convention is so good for Sparks and Reno. These people go to shows, they shop … they spend money here.”

Safari Club International is the largest convention to come to northern Nevada, according to RSCVA representatives. The event brings big game hunters and sportsmen from all over the world.