Sh*t You May Have Missed: Vegas Gets NHL Hockey, Riviera Imploded, Possible Wynn and Sands Merger, New Tower for Trop?…more
Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending June 17th, 2016…
Hi, everyone…BigAZMarty here with some tidbits from around Las Vegas this week.
1. As covered here, there is only the front strip casino portion and the original Monte Carlo tower left to knock down (not to be confused with the Monte Carlo Casino Resort that MGM is renaming), and then the Rivera will be a mere memory. The Monaco tower was imploded this week. Besides the Vegas Bright coverage (Greg C, Sammasseur, and Michael Movestro) which was filmed from Westgate, it was covered in most of the news here, here and all over YouTube via Riviera Monaco Tower implosion search. I love the YouTube from where the “official” viewpoints all had car alarms going off at 2:30 AM. I feel sorry for those that had earplugs in, and their car battery died by the next morning, or maybe not.
2. Well, as of next Monday you will have only one week to get in those visits to classic downtown slot joints and the “drink two drinks and run” Strip Club. The doors will be closed on June 27th for good. Derek and crew will probably add to Golden Gate the La Bayou…and across the street will probably be redone and joined to whatever the new casino is that was the Las Vegas Club. That is a fairly large contiguous parcel on the north side now Mermaids all the way to the corner of the old Las Vegas Club. Let’s hope he drops some hints as to what is in store for that side of Fremont.
3. Las Vegas will be getting an NHL expansion team. The soonest is 2017 – 2018 season. The NHL has, I think, a 30-day before-opening-day clause to decide on whether to allow bets on the local team (easy for sports books) or be blacked out (sports books will have to exclude any bets on the local team). MGM will profit as they own 1/2 of the T-Mobile Arena and will be charging them danged parking fees (probably “surge” parking and will not be excluded if anything).
4. Caesars gets a reprieve from a legal death sentence until Aug 29…at, which point the two lawsuits in NY and Delaware will continue to nail the coffin shut. Apollo and TPG better be ponying up some big upfront cash to get this CEOC BK done before then, or the judge will no longer extend it. Motley Fool is of the opinion that this will all go down in a big cloud of smoke and dust soon. It’s all risk but hey, a shell game played and lost, right?
5. Interesting opinion from Gaming Today analyst in a Robin Leach rumors article. Are Wynn and Las Vegas Sands up for a merger? It’s something that could be done fairly easily as they have similar management scale and locations. Adelson will gain a lagoon and Wynn will gain a big new arena or two (football plus another for music) to play with. I still think if you are going to do a lagoon you MUST have at least 4ft waves crashing on the beach…it would keep the sand cooler near the water for a much longer time in the summer.
6. Alon construction may be delayed for a while….evidently Packer’s Melco Crown Empire is “protecting” the core Australian assets and selling off some of the non-Aussie properties including Alon, to a “new” company (possible property trust…I assume an Aussie version of the US REIT). The $2 billion add in funding from Melco Crown is interesting as that could build something but probably for operating expenses and “cash on hand” for the casinos.
7. There might be a new tower at Tropicana by Penn; I didn’t even know that was being discussed. That would be a nice add…as long as it doesn’t block the sun at that historical pool. The decision will be made in late 2017. They have to see more quality people there. They must not remember that AZTAR used to run it as a value hotel with cheap rooms and eats, that’s how it was for a long time. Anyone remember the 1800GOTOTROP marketing? It never made sense because of the extra letter! There are some other interesting items to note…go here and scroll down to where you see in bold Tropicana Las Vegas and read there.
8. Is Station Casinos making more plans? Go here and scroll down to where you can read the Stations plan for Durango Station and the old Viva site where a Days Inn and Wild Wild West casino now sit. That is fairly close to the Palms so they might keep a small casino ala Rampart Casino at JW Marriot near/at Summerlin to not completely compete with another property so close. The Durango Station…that is way Southwest at the corner of 215, another exit or two west of the Sams Club complex. Here is a really old article back when it was originally planned out. It looks a lot like Aliente.
9. Downtown Plaza’s pool area got it’s food truck craned to the roof, article and pictures here. This looks like a real food truck not like the one at Harrah’s Southern California Resort that has the killer breakfast burritos (looks like it is, but really isn’t a whole food truck..So Cal Imagineering). Let’s hope the food is as good here as at HSCR’s.
10. Frank Marino and Kat’s Report give some history on the Riviera here. Hard to believe he did La Cage for 23 years there and is still going.
11. City Hall approves new downtown plan (planned to be completed by 2045) be careful its the 355 page PDF. Interesting reading that it has another purpose for the Moulin Rouge site….a Westside Vocational School….see page 62.
That’s all their sh*t, now for our sh*t with Chief Editor Michael Movestro…
Thanks, Marty! I hoped to be editing this article from Las Vegas, but Allegiant canceled my flight yesterday and rescheduled it for tonight (26 hours later). Fun, right? So, I’m editing from home but hopefully, I’ll be in my hotel bed Friday morning when this posts, after a long night of “Vegasy” good times (which will not include a free shower). So here’s what we brought you this week:
12. The week started Sunday with Episode 11 of the Vegas Bright Podcast where I called one of those “Asian Massage’ places that offer a “Free Shower in your room.” Now we know what they mean. Other topics: “Wynning” Millennials, Free Shower Meaning Revealed! A4AD: Share Your Riviera Memories
13. Blonde4ever reviewed American Coney Island Hot Dogs.
14. On the Eve of Implosion for The Riviera’s Monaco Tower, we took one last look at photos.
15. Greg C brought Video: Implosion of The Riviera’s Monaco Tower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVNAkEpAsQ
16. Sammasseur explained how “To Serve You Better” Actually Works In Your Favor at Westgate.
17. Kelly Lamrock reviewed Samba Brazilian Steakhouse at the Mirage.
18. BigAzMarty shared his luckiest Vegas trip from 2012 – so many 4OAKS and Royals that I lost count.
19. Reader BBmomo shared her first Vegas trip from 2014.
20. This article, which you are reading right now.
That’s it for sh*t for this week, see you next week!
[Images: Greg C, Michael James, Michael Movestro, Greg Bennett]
A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.
