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Posted At : January 22, 2009 11:00 AM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories:
Environment,Station Casinos,Economy,Sports,Wall Street
Local publisher Sherman Frederick's man-crush on Frank III & Lorenzo Fertitta is taking on groupie-like proportions. He devotes today's edition of his blog to a gooey ode to les freres Fertitta and their UFC, "Las Vegas' No. 1 business success story." (For my own feelings about the UFC, I yield the floor to the senior senator from Arizona, the Honorable John McCain, who once described it unforgettably as "human cockfighting." And that guy knows a thing or two about brutality, having been an extended-stay guest of the Hanoi Hilton.)
"Even with the economy going to hell in a handbasket," Frederick swoons, "the guys at Ultimate Fighting Championship seem to have caught lightning in a bottle. While casinos, real estate and retail are on bended knees right now in Nevada, the business of mixed martial arts is jumping through the roof."
And you know whose casinos are among those "on bended knees" right now? The Fertitta Bros., that's who. An ill-advised LBO (at a mind-boggling 17X EBITDA, according to a Morgan Stanley research note at 9.8X the company's 2007 EBITDA) has Station Casinos teetering on the precipice of Chapter 11. Reservationists have been sacked and their jobs offloaded to the Third World; 401(k) contributions have been halted; the company's revolving line of credit has been raided to pay operating costs; ownership's proposed rescue plan was so disadvantageous to debtholders that they all but spat upon it. Just part of "the biggest Las Vegas business success story" of the 21st century, I guess.
Kill Mojave Max! Who needs desert tortoises? Not Frederick's editorial braintrust (now there's a contradiction in terms), who ridicule attempts to preserve Nevada's second-most beloved species ... "whales" being the first, of course.
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Present-day UFC is basically WWE without the pre-determined victories or anyone driving into the arena on heavy machinery and flipping over the ring. They're even begun doing the over-dramatic verbal arguing and stuff from pro wrestling to make viewers go "oh, burn!" and buy the next PPV.
I'd say it's improved a lot, though I don't know how much credit they should get for it.
Great move: I want to spend two or three days on the phone talking to four people in the Philippines and India, trying to reserve a non-smoking room in the South tower, with an in-room coffee maker - and can I get my birthday discount, please?
What's the time in Mumbai, anyway?