Sh*t You May Have Missed… Like Mindfreak Live! Closing in 2018
Happy Holidays All, BigAZMarty here wishing you a belated Merry Christmas [or name your Holiday here] and a soon to be Happy New Year! And now for the latest from our favorite place, Las Vegas!
1) Caesars Entertainment has set up the re-finance funding for the new subsidiaries finally for Caesars Resort Collection, CGRP and CGPH, or shall we say creative finance cost reduction by kicking the can down the road? Read the PRNewswire release here.
2) Caesars Entertainment has closed on the sale of the real estate for Harrah’s Las Vegas to their associated REIT, VICI Properties and the purchase from VICI for the land out back of Harrah’s/The Linq for the new convention center. Read the PRNewswire here. The plan is for Caesars to have a long-term lease and when the new convention buildings are all up and open they can sell that back to VICI Properties and then lease back.
3) Speaking of VICI Properties, they have a new $2.2B Senior Term Loan and in addition to that they’ve already received $2.6B in funding read BusinessWire here. This to start to buy additional properties such as Harrah’s Laughlin, Harrah’s Atlantic City and others that make sense for Caesars to sell and lease back. Eventually VICI Properties will IPO as a publicly traded stock, for now it’s an over the counter (OTC) stock but you can read the plans at LVRJ here.
4) I read this last week and then forgot to put it in, MGM is partnering with Unikrn to bring eSports tournaments to Level Up at MGM Grand read BusinessWire here. This is in addition to the eSports Arena that is replacing the LAX nightclub at Luxor. So eSports fans it’s Fridays and Saturdays 4 pm to 10 pm weekly at Level Up.
5) Nevada is reporting a substantial downward number for November and it’s all Strip related, down Y-O-Y of 2.3% however most of it is because the Strip had a horrendous month for Baccarat and Table Games as well as Sports Books. That made the Strip a big loser at a loss of 6.04% Y-O-Y, read LVSun here. Funny thing is take The Strip out and it’s a positive month for Nevada. Could it be due to reduced demand the casino’s are rolling back to the gamblers side to get people back in the casino seats? Hmmm…. could be. Worked eventually during the Great Recession…. then they tighten it all back up eventually.
6) If you are in town for New Years Eve celebrations and think hey there is a little more space while walking the Strip this year vs. last year you’d be correct, LasVegas Inc. via LVSun is reporting the numbers will be down this year here. Blame room and resort remodeling (Monte Carlo/Park MGM, Palace Station, Flamingo Fab Room redo, maybe Bally’s Indigo Tower going to “Resort Rooms”). Oh and the fact that Jan 1 is on a Monday this year and you’d have to leave that day to get back to work on Jan 2.
7) New Years Eve weekend shows are special and this year they include the Foo Fighters at The Cosmo’s Chelsea Theater, read the big line up for the weekend at LVWeekly via LVSun here. I was looking at the Foo Fighters (Dec. 30th) as wife has picked up a liking to them but at this late stage it’s a pretty brutal pricing scheme $150 – $350 a seat) and she balked especially with our hometown and Nevada getting up on the flu numbers.
8) Wondering who’s doing the clubs NYE? LVWeekly has that as well here. LV Untz (shout out to Moe Vestro)!
9) Still haven’t picked which NYE party to attend in Las Vegas? Again LVWeekly has the list, read here. Have at it!
10) LVWeekly also has a where to eat on NYE check out that list here.
11) LVSun covers the new $60M William F. Harrah’s (nee Bill Harrah’s) College of Hospitality new “Hospitality Hall” at UNLV, read and view here. That’s a lot of building for some hotel management students.
12) Criss Angel and Luxor will part ways at end of 2018 as his contract will up and the final shows in Oct. 2018, read LVSun here.
13) LVRJ has where to see fireworks NYE in Las Vegas this year, read here.
14) LVRJ also has the off strip bars and clubs to party at here. Just remember Uber and Lyft are your friends… no drinking and driving since the Strip will be closed off to traffic. Don’t be THAT Guy/Girl.
15) Speaking of security, LVRJ is covering all the extra security happening this year, read here. While keeping crowds safe, remember at one time Palm Springs was a Spring Break haven before extreme police enforcement started to suck the fun out of the place and kids moved over to the Colorado River or Baja Mexico for their fun. I just have a concern with using active law enforcement snipers.
16) Wow, who knew, The Tuscany has finally finished their redo, read LVRJ here, two years and one shot of a suite or common area? We’ll need better shots of that of course.
17) Kats via LVRJ here reporting Britney’s last show will be NYE and tied into the Rocking New Years Eve with Ryan Seacrest, Britney may end up somewhere else in LV soon so stay tuned.
18) Vital Vegas has the concept and info on the soon to be Sports Bar at the Sports Book at Park MGM, read here.
19) Vital Vegas has some updated on the new Naked Pizza at El Cortez that replaced LasVegasJunkie’s favorite Pizza Lotto. Read here and check out the MarC cheese pull and the ginormous meatball.
20) Vital Vegas also has an article about fascinating things about Roulette, read and enjoy here.
21) MarC of EDGE Vegas has a great article on exploring Las Vegas | Summerlin via TravelZork here.
22) Tired of all the Lady Gaga news, well MarC of EDGE Vegas via Travel Vegas says forget her, see Renegades at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace instead, read here. O.K. MarC but only if during Jim McMahon’s segment they backdrop him with the SuperBowl Shuffle Bears video from the 80’s.
23) Planning a visit to Las Vegas but don’t want to visit in a busy or super booked timeframe? MarC at EDGE Vegas has some help via frontdesktip.com here. The link to the convention calendar is invaluable, and remember this coming year June may be a dead time as EDC is moving to May this upcoming year. Prior to EDC eating up June it used to be one of the best times to come in and find limited crowds (it’s also heat stroke time of year as well).
24) If you ever needed to overdose on the color pink or see something that approaches Willy Wonka’s fantasy world, the go-to Venetian Grand Shoppe’s and find Sloans, EATER Vegas has the coverage of the joy of ice cream via Sloan’s here. See Hexx Candy closes and Sloan’s opens…. the universe even’s out after all.
25) Finally, EATER Vegas has an interview here with Virgil’s Real BBQ owner Jeffrey Banks about the first year of operation but the new item that I’d never heard of or seen was that they are doing food service to The Linq pool now! So if you get that Pool Side Suite, you should be able to order Virgil’s Real BBQ from that patio off your room!
So that’s it for the in-between holidays’ news in Las Vegas, we hope you have had a great Xmas and have a supercalifragalisticexpialidocious New Year in 2018! And now over to our Editor-in-Chief, LasVegasJunkie, for our stuff and more.
Gracias, BigAZMarty! Here we go…
- Chief Editor LasVegasJunkie returns with the Las Vegas Junkie Podcast Episode 6… the official-unofficial Vegas Bright Podcast. ! You didn’t ask for it, so we delivered anyway!
That’s all Folks!
[Photo Cred. LasVegasJunkie]
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.
