Robin Camacho
Las Vegas Real Estate
David McKee
Stiffs & Georges
Jean Scott
Frugal Vegas
Cannery Casino Resorts (29) [RSS]
Melco Crown Entertainment (29) [RSS]
Morgans Hotel Group (32) [RSS]
Pinnacle Entertainment (60) [RSS]
Tropicana Entertainment (90) [RSS]
World Series of Poker (6) [RSS]
Illinois: No country for big casinos
JohnTerez said: What your name? , <a href="http://pdabooks.org/membe... noir wine&l... [More]
Nevada: The Stupid State
PortoM0n said: Don't go far away. , <a href="http://cool-wallpapers.ev... cool wall... [More]
They burned the Monte Carlo ... and may get away with it
JohnTerez said: Try see it. , <a href="http://smart.fm/lists/152... glass supplies</a>... [More]
Nevada: The Stupid State
PortoM0n said: Hi brothers and sisters! , <a href="http://boxesandarrows.com...... [More]
They burned the Monte Carlo ... and may get away with it
SoloJ3ss said: Great... , <a href="http://boxesandarrows.com... to make deer a... [More]
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog.
alex yemenidjian ameristar animals architecture atlantic city australia baseball boulder strip boyd gaming california cannery casino resorts carl icahn charity cirque du soleil citycenter colony capital colorado columbia sussex cosmopolitan current detroit dining don barden donald trump downtown economy election encore entertainment environment florida fontainebleau g2e george maloof harrah's harry reid herbst gaming horseracing igt illinois indiana international internet gambling isle of capri james packer kansas kentucky labor lake tahoe laughlin lawrence ho louisiana lvcva m resort macau marketing massachusetts melco crown entertainment mesquite mgm mirage michael gaughan mississippi missouri monte carlo fire morgans hotel group movies neil bluhm ohio oscar goodman penn national pennsylvania pets phil ruffin pinnacle entertainment planet hollywood politics problem gambling regulation reno riviera sahara sheldon adelson singapore sports stanley ho station casinos steve wynn tamares group taxes technology the strip tilman fertitta tourism transportation tribal tropicana entertainment tv wall street
Posted At : March 16, 2009 01:50 PM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories:
California,Cannery Casino Resorts,James Packer,Australia,Technology
Though it can't seem to settle on a dollar figure for James Packer's renegotiated Cannery Casino Resorts purchase, this story makes one salient point: A $1.7 billion-plus acquisition could be converted into a 25% stake for $370 million-$390 million. That effectively reprices 100% of Cannery at $1.48 billion-$1.56 billion. Which enables Packer to save face on what is described as an "increasingly onerous deal." Or it could be a graceful way of bowing out of further U.S. casino adventures in favor of a renewed Down Under focus.
A reader writes ...
I know that you are a big fan of a high-speed rail system to Vegas, and I do see the need to increase the traffic flow from SoCal to Vegas.
But I wonder if anyone has run the numbers to compare adding an additional highway lane or two (and even expanding any bridges) from the north edge of the LA area to Vegas? And how that figure compares to the cost of a high-speed rail.
Again, I'm not an opponent of rail lines (in fact, my wife comes from a long-line of train-employed relatives), but I wonder where the best "bang for the buck" would come from.
From some VERY basic numbers on the web, I'm getting estimates of about $1 million per mile per lane for highway building in the desert. Even with adding a lane in each direction, that's about $2 million per mile, or around $400 million for the approx. 200 miles from the north edge of metro LA to Vegas. Even if you more than double that figure for bridge expansions, etc., you still only end up with a cost of $1 billion. Compare that to the $8 billion in the stimulus package for high-speed rail (although I'm not sure how much of that $8 billion goes to the Vegas rail, or what the total cost of that project would be).
As you can tell, I am NO expert on this, but it might be interesting to hear from some experts (and who don't have a dog in the hunt).
You make good points, Kemosabe.
Print | 
Send to Friend | 
del.icio.us | 
Digg It! | 
Linking Blogs |
An extra lane would be cheaper to make right now but not be the right move in the long run.
I don't know what the current ridership projections are, but they were probably made up before gasoline costs jumped last summer, and gas is expected to increase long-term, which would cause a jump in ridership. When gas goes up, McCarran (your current option if you don't own a car or don't want to bring one) isn't going to be any cheaper, either.
An extra lane essentially means more cars in Vegas, which is already too auto-oriented as things are. Our streets are already crowded, and we're allegedly now an "emptier" city than Detroit. So what happens if things turn around and we become a full city? Rather than encourage tourists to bring their cars, why not encourage them to leave them so that the roadways are more efficient for the cars that are almost always here?
The ideal train would start out on a northern part of the city, either North Las Vegas, or waaay out in Centennial Hills, roll along at typical commuter rail speed to McCarran, and then bullet-train it to somewhere in LA with Metrolink and CHSR. How possible that is, I don't know, but then again I'm also used to just laughing out any story on Vegas-LA trains since they've been talked about for decades.
I think your average SoCal traveler is bigoted against buses, while a train (or a few hours at the airport) might be acceptable. Maglev may be the fastest train to go back and forth (major plus when traveling) but I wonder if it's as green as a slower rail line.
<snip> Twenty years later, I moved to Las Vegas and they were *still* debating light rail in the Twin Cities.
- The railroad from the East to California was also debated for decades. Finally it was accomplished with many federal tax dollars, although with a lot of corruption. The Obama administration intends to make sure corruption does not occur in its stimulus investments.
Funny how nobody seems to remember that the feds shoveled hundreds of $millions to airlines after 9/11 to keep them from failing while trying to kill Amtrak by drying up its already meager funding. And guess which alternate transportation system was over-booked by people anxious to "get out of town" while the airplanes were grounded, or who were scared to fly? Right: Amtrak.
I like trains. I don't like the airlines' ever-increasing hassle. I like going to Vegas. I want a CA-LV train again!
I'm with you, sort of, but even other railfans acknowledge that Amtrak is next to useless unless you live in the NE Corridor. California tried, with state funded routes like the Capitols, even they gave up and moved on to a bullet train.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/03/16/...
At least Amtrak is still (sorta) alive. The Obstructicans in Congress tried to dry up ALL federal funding, leaving it to each state to pay for the trains running within its borders - or not.
I wonder how that plan would have worked out if applied to the interstate highway system.