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It's still nearly 2,000 miles from Las Vegas to High Point, but in another sense the distance is decreasing.

For High Point's furniture market, Las Vegas is getting too close for comfort and needs some pushing back.

The World Market Center in Las Vegas announced Wednesday it will change its schedule of shows from February and July to February and September starting next year. The September date puts the Las Vegas event only one month before the High Point Market's fall show each October. High Point's spring market is in April.

The shift to September is an aggressively in-your-face move that intensifies the Las Vegas-High Point rivalry. It will be harder for exhibitors to show in Las Vegas and High Point each fall with so little time in between, and more buyers will reconsider their own plans. Las Vegas seems to be forcing the industry to make a choice.

The challenge is right in character for the western upstart, which initially proclaimed a desire merely to become a top regional market but lately has revealed the goal of achieving market pre-eminence, the position held by High Point for decades.

"No one could have imagined that in three years we would be at this point," World Market Center President Robert Maricich said after the summer show. "At a time when people are looking at the glass being half empty, we are playing to win."

High Point's attitude must be the same. Tough times in the furniture industry threaten to depress business and attendance at every market, but that just raises the stakes. Gambling is the stock-in-trade in Las Vegas, and the World Market Center is making a play to survive by grabbing a larger share at High Point's expense.

High Point Market leaders probably are right that, despite claims to the contrary, the Las Vegas summer show wasn't doing as well as promoters hoped. But they'd be foolish to take this move lightly. If the industry has to choose between markets, High Point must work harder than ever to influence that decision in the right direction. High Point still has a huge advantage in sheer size, but Las Vegas is steadily building up to match it. And, it consolidates its showrooms on a single campus while High Point's are spread across several downtown blocks. Las Vegas naturally also touts its superior hospitality and entertainment attractions.

High Point should not change its own market dates, but it must continue to make improvements in accommodations, transportation, entertainment and the overall visitor experience. Every market must be more customer-friendly than the one before. And, promoters must sell the strengths of the High Point Market to a worldwide industry.

That requires commitment, creativity and resources. Responsibility rests not just with High Point, but with Triad neighbors and the state. If Las Vegas is crowding High Point, it's crashing the whole neighborhood.