Sh*t You May Have Missed When Davis Fudged the Raiders Deal

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It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending 2/3/2017.

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here with all the Las Vegas news leading into “SuperB owl” weekend!

1. Chinese New Year has come and gone, see some Downtown Las Vegas celebrations here via LVRJ.

2. Wynn Resorts, Inc. reports earnings. While they were short of expectations .50 a share vs. .67 expected, the nugget of goodness is the Steve has not canceled out the Paradise Park, is working through the design phases, and, may start construction by the end of 2017. Yay! More construction starting up north of Desert Inn! Read LVRJ here.  Is this Wynn’s shot to get more North Strip construction going.? He’s trying that’s for sure as he should have the shopping mall out front finishing up when the stuff out back starts up. I suggest that next, he buy the Alon (old New Frontier site) and something with the best view of the south strip that outdoes the Trump tower in a big way. Maybe mirror Wynn and Encore towers on that Alon foothold and put in enclosed and air conditioned sky bridges over Las Vegas Blvd?

3. Per LVRJ here Silver Sevens and Primm casino owner Affinity Gaming has approval for being bought out by Z Capital and their Executives, this takes the small company private. Here is their list of properties owned across the US. And, wow, first time rooms have been remodeled at Whiskey Pete’s since 1977? Wow…and have they re-opened the tower rooms? Not sure….last time I’d heard only the small old motel wings were in use and those were remodeled. That “cost” sounds like it’s just the portion of smaller buildings still in use, not the big tower. My 2nd gaming trip with my wife in 1991 was to Whiskey Pete’s, and it was OK (and the only time we stayed there). A better bang for your buck for sure, but Primm Resort had just opened (back then it was called the Primadonna Casino Resort), so we took the monorail from Whiskey Pete’s over to check it out. We’ve stayed at all three of them at one time or another, and when it was new, we really enjoyed the pool at Primm Resort (it used to be open to the desert as the enclosing wings had not been constructed yet). Let’s hope Z Capital can make this a nice place again. Last stop over at Buffalo Bill’s did not end well as my son got sick there about ten years ago coming in from Southern California (we had to skip our Las Vegas stay as well) and we haven’t been back since. At one time before Buffalo Bill’s and the Factory Outlets opened there was a fairly large Ferris wheel there that was fun to ride and watch the traffic on I-15.

4. Las Vegas Sands is trying new things to attract millennials read LVRJ (Sheldon’s paper) here. Vital Vegas covered Stadium Blackjack last week, but the area between the Sands Convention Center and Venetian is new.  A  1,170 square foot pop-up co-working lounge sponsored by Zappo’s? Interesting….I might be heading back there for a work convention in a couple of months, so I will have to see it and report back.

5. Now that Las Vegas has won back the ACM Awards (April 2 at T-Mobile Arena)…holy cow, my early access MLife tickets were over $700 each for sections just off the floor per seat for ACM. So, I’m sticking with Green Day at MGM Garden Arena the following weekend for ~$160 per seat and skipping ACM. Now for the bad news, seems there will not be an outdoor component scheduled, read Kats via LVRJ here. Does this kill off the use of the MGM Festival Grounds across from SLS and Lucky Dragon long term? And, if so, is MGM going to do something with that land? The original MGM plans were for a City Center North when all the building in the mid-2000’s were ongoing.

6. Kats is also covering ACM’s Party for a Cause; it’s going to be ALL OVER LAS VEGAS, read here.

7. In Kats article in #6 (scroll down) Jeff Civillicio is leaving the Flamingo after having knee surgery last October. Now according to Vital Vegas, he’s heading to Paris Las Vegas in March….read Vital Vegas here.

8. SB weekend upcoming, LVSun has some info on where to watch and be watched while watching the game read here. To me, for that old school Las Vegas vibe, you can’t beat the Westgate SuperBook.

9. The Donut Licker herself Ariana Grande is playing at MGM on February 4th. LVSun has an article (with no mention on the donut, or is it doughnut?) here. It’s interesting that she’s “trying” to not follow Mariah Carie’s career path. Somehow licking donuts and saying you “Hate America” may be exactly that path.

10. Interesting… you can have “Dinner with the Dead” at The Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay with Psychic Thomas John. Read LVSun here. To make it more interesting maybe he should do it in either the Luxor or Bally’s Plasticized Bodies Exhibits…now wouldn’t that be weird…or is it just a great Halloween idea? You decide.

11. I saw this last week and misplaced it for last weeks article. Well, maybe because this developer has tried this many times before so here goes. *ahem* Developer Josh Kearney (Australia) has a $800M plan for a sports park and hotel complex (no casino plans) for the land to the south of the strip past Town Square and the southeast corner of LV Blvd and Sunset. Read LVRJ here. I’m not sure if this is on the empty land or if they are going to take over the Taylor Made Golf Experience, the Gene Woods Racing Experience Go Kart, the World Center for Broadcast Media and finally the Regional Transportation Commission…which would be neighbors if they don’t.

12. Holy Crap! The Raiders have created a shit storm around their planned move to Las Vegas. First off, the absolutely nuts lease agreement. They want to pay $1 per year to the Sports Authority read LVRJ here. It’s interesting because they believe that Goldman Sachs will come up with the missing funding and not the Adelson family. Of course, Sheldon’s decided to break it all by pulling out of it completely, read LVRJ here. If the Goldman Sachs money isn’t there, I would suppose this is going to put the Raiders in hot water without a stadium to play in after the 2018 season (remaining contract timeframe in Oakland).  However, the LVSun article seems to think that Goldman Sachs will happen if the Raiders cough up a little more $$$ if you read their version of the stories here. And, of course, a day later Goldman Sachs says “WHAAAAAT” as their providing funding was hinged on the Adelson family providing their chunk of change. So, no go per LVSun here. Also, something previously not in the LVRJ article was that the Sports Authority would have to pay for any stadium upgrades. How, if they only get $1 a year? So another big busted plan….perhaps Las Vegas Today and Tomorrow can list it as one of the pipe dreams. Anyways, NFL commissioner has made it clear NO CASINO ownership at all, read LVSun here.

13. Winner winner chicken dinner! NYNY Wheel of Fortune $1 machine coughs up the big bucks to the tune of 1.156M according to LVRJ here. No word on the winner or which option was taken; the smaller immediate payout, or, the full long payout over time. LVSun is reporting the same thing but has some history on the Wheel of Fortune dynasty as well here. Damn, that’s a lot of chicken dinner!!!!

14. New job for Steve Wynn? Yes, he has been selected by the Donald to be the RNC’s new Finance Chairman. Read LVRJ here. Not sure if there are any divestiture requirements for the Steve, but, wow wouldn’t that be something if he had to put Wynn Resorts, Inc. / Wynn China stocks in a blind trust and relinquish control of his Wynn Resorts, Inc. jobs?

15. Town Square Las Vegas sold for maybe $215.6M (going off what the mortgage is as no numbers were given in normal docs) to TIAA and Fairbourne Partners. This gives them all 100 acres except for the Turnberry’s offices. The mall has a 90% occupancy rate and houses the one place that can take on Las Vegas buffets: Texas de Brazil (OMG food coma every time). They will begin mall improvements soon, which means when the current leases are up you can be sure that the tenants will be requested to pay more on next lease contract.

16. Harrah’s Las Vegas getting sued by a serial litigant for ADA violations (ease of access type of things) read here. You know, after the bankruptcy plan that was just approved, the Caesars Entertainment attorneys needed something to do. However, in most of the other 8 cases brought to court, they settled out of court (i.e. undisclosed cash settlement and business says nope did nothing wrong, is the usual M.O.).

17. Nevada casinos see a drop in December gaming returns of 2.73% read LVSun here. It seems the big issue is that New Years fell on a weekend, so they have to report that weekend portion in January. So if January is equally bad, well, it’s not that….loosen up the tables and machines maybe? Nah, that wouldn’t work cause then they’d have to charge more for rooms, food, drink and Oontz.

18. You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours? Wynn Resorts has a new Senior Vice President: Christopher Carr. Carr was previously the RNC’s Political Director. Read LVSun here.

19. LVSun is reporting the SuperB Owl weekend occupancy is not near the highest weekend of the year but has been improving over the last few years. Read here. Also of note is the fact that March Madness tends to draw more male crowds, but SuperB Owl draws a mixed crowd. Cute commercials and all I’m thinking.

20. Finally, some info, LVSun via LV Weekly here has some tidbits from Derek Stevens himself on what is going on with his new purchases downtown. It looks like the parcel near Golden Gate will be room for expansion for the casino. Construction started last week and will end in August. The planning for the former Las Vegas Club/Mermaids/Girls of Glitter Gulch/Main Street Station’s parking lot is still coming together. They’ve had 46 design meetings so far….sheesh…do it the old fashioned Las Vegas way, knock it all down and start new from scratch already…that solves that! Oh, and I have a thought for the name after watching a bit of an old Vegas-based movie with Jane Russell and Vincent Price…the Fantastico. Wouldn’t that be a hoot to go with Golden Gate and The D names?

21. LVSun also via LV Weekly has the SB weekend big list of parties here.

22. Sad news to report as Tony Sacca has passed away, read LVSun here and here, LVRJ via Katz here and here, LVRJ via Robin here and here. He was performing last in the Windows Showroom at Bally’s at different times from Wayne Newton. Personally, I’ve never seen him, but from all the galleries and articles he was a special guy (along with his brother) for Las Vegas.

23. Hmmm….wonder if this has anything to do with that planned arena behind the Venetian/Palazzo, Madison Square Gardens buys into majority ownership of Tao Group. Read LVRJ Robin here. So some Rockettes with the Oontz?

24. Willie was in Vegas to perform and to promote Willie’s Reserve for the MJ Dispensaries. Read Robin here.

25. Robin’s Red Carpet report for this week has some interesting tidbits here. Claire Sinclair is doing an apartment to BnB conversion downtown, so she is busy. Not related to Clair but another item for stoner weddings, Cannabis Chapel? Too funny…but that other High “Speed” item to note: 5 laps in a Lambo Huracan for $399. Yeah, I’d do that, at 20 laps I’d probably be bruised by seat belts…gotta test that adhesion level you know?

26. Vital Vegas has an article on The Plaza’s new mural in Downtown Las Vegas here.  Kinda cool, kinda wild, and for sure will pick up some interest for that property. From the look of it, only Main Street Station and The California rooms that face back towards Fremont will see this.

27. Jay Leno and Brad Garrett filming Leno’s Garage in Downtown Las Vegas, and some drama around Heart Attack Grill per Vital Vegas here. It’s interesting that mess couldn’t be better negotiated as having Brad and Leno just talking in there would promote the place.

28. Vegasevens has an article from Anthony Curtis on how to bet on the Big Game this weekend. Read here for details.

29. EDGE Vegas has an article on the newly revamped Identity Slot Club at Cosmopolitan, read here. All I can say is the place was way more packed at New Years than during the summer months but for sure seems traffic is picking up there. I still would like to experience the rooms that have the strip or fountain view wrap around balcony just once. My wife picked up one of those cards, so, maybe soon?

30. Did you just crawl into town on your last volt/amp of power in your plug-in or hybrid? If so here is a great list of plugs for electric vehicles that includes off strip casinos as well. Thanks for EDGE Vegas for this here.

31. EDGE Vegas also has a nice concise list of casinos that have available winter pools. The majority of casinos close their pools in winter to facilitate maintenance on them or redo’s (is Excalibur’s done yet?). Read here.

32. Eater Vegas is covering some stealth project that I’d not seen before; Atomic Liquors is getting a restaurant neighbor using the same name. Atomic Kitchen, read here, and hopefully a mid-Feb opening.

33. If Virgil’s isn’t good enough BBQ for you, there is another new place from Sin City Smokers; this is way east on Green Valley Parkway and Sunset. But, afterward you could go just a bit further east on Sunset and be near the Ethel M factory tour and make a day of it. Read Eater Vegas here. Sin City Smokers have won several awards, and they are on display as well.

And that’s it for this week’s edition of LV around the webs, and now to our native spinner of news and LV goodness, our editor-in-chief, Michael Movestro!

Thanks, BigAzMarty, and what a week! Davis sure made a dick move with that whole stadium deal.

Hey, peeps! Here are the stories we brought you this week:

34. Blonde4ever Visits Burger Brasserie at Paris Las Vegas.

35. I look at the changes and new things happening at Hard Rock Hotel.

36. Michael James shares his ‘personal Vegas Film Fest’ list.

37. I review the Luxor Pyramid Deluxe King Room.

38. Also, this breaking story on Parking Meters arriving at LINQ.

39. And, of course, BizAzMarty with SYMHM. No link necessary; you’re already reading it.

That’s it for this week, we’ll see you next week!

[Cover Image: Manica Architecture]