Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

November 1, 2010

WSJ Covers Tough Calls Made at CityCenter

Posted by Hunter

The Wall Street Journal has a new piece that dives deeply into some of the hard choices that the joint venture board has had to look at over the past few months as performance has continued to be elusive for the mega-complex.

WSJ: Rolling Dice on Giant Casino Complex (Registration Required)

One thing that does seem to be a bright spot - Aria's performance continues to improve.

I was personally there several times this weekend and volumes seem to be up. That said though, after visiting Blackjacker1979's SkySuite where the light bulbs flickered on and off and the music shut itself down to note an open door (incorrect), there are clearly still problems.

I'd expect CityCenter to market heavily to Cosmo guests starting in December, though one rumor I heard at Vegas Podcast-a-palooza sounded like a terrible idea: an advertising wrap on the Aria Pelli Tower. It would really be sad if it comes to that... How 'bout just building a real Strip marquee guys, huh? You could have the biggest one in town.


Categories: Business of Gaming, CityCenter, Las Vegas Strip, MGM Resorts International


Comments

Read archived comments (5 so far)
November 2, 2010 5:35 AM Posted by detroit1051

These two excerpts show CityCenter's dilemma. If they closed venues, it would be the kiss of death, and CC would never recover. Let's hope McBeath's position, in the second quote, prevails and the Vegas economy improves and MGM gets some inspired leadership who can help turn CC around.

I'd love to see the Joint Venture documents the WSJ got. They'd be fascinating reading.

"Over the summer, executives of Dubai World and MGM Resorts International, which jointly own the project, studied and rejected closing two of the site's three hotels and the Viva Elvis Cirque du Soleil show, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal."

"MGM Resorts' Bill McBeath, who oversees Aria, the main casino hotel at City Center, responded that "we need to keep operating our venues [because] our high-end international customers expect superior service."

November 2, 2010 7:05 AM Posted by chuckmonster

LOL.

November 2, 2010 8:03 AM Posted by jay

As I have said before, City Center will be the death of MGM and wipeout shareholder equity period. It's too big, its a cash guzzler and even Dubai is smart and wants out of it. The whole thing just came online at the wrong time. They (MGM) gambled big on it, it was either gonna save the company or sink it. SINKING is putting it mildly. Watch and See...They couldnt even sell all $500 million in bonds, as they came up just short. Not a good sign!

November 2, 2010 8:15 AM Posted by Mike P.

I was able to access the whole article through Google news - just search for MGM Resorts and look for news articles posted in the last 24 hours. Pretty much confirms everything Hunter wrote in his series of posts a few weeks ago.

Got into town too late on Saturday to check out Podcastalooza or whatever you call it. Detroit will be interested to know that Bellagio's high limit slot room is walled off for remodelling.

If there are any Wynn whales out there, Wynn's high level gaming room is walled off too, with bacc players temporarily exiled to the main casino floor. Looks like Wynn's Lakeside Grill is now open, at least there are signs everywhere and a menu is posted outside the door. It appears to be a step down in culinary ambition from DB.

November 2, 2010 8:19 AM Posted by Hunter

Yeah, we ate at Lakeside on Saturday night. In a word, I enjoyed it. Tasty.