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Reader Poll Preview: What should Circus Circus' new owner do with all that property?
Though it hasn't been officially confirmed, a couple weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that MGM Resorts "is in talks" to sell Circus Circus to Phil Ruffin. It wouldn't be the first time MRI has sold a hotel-casino to the real estate mogul: Ruffin bought Treasure Island from MGM in 2009 for $750 million. Scott Roeben of VitalVegas.com broke the story a week earlier, blogging that the sale was "a done deal" and includes the Las Vegas Festival Grounds next door, a total of 102 acres, with a Strip frontage of more than a quarter-mile.
Which leads us to this preview of the poll that will run next week: What do you think Ruffin should do with the 102 acres, including the 123,000-square-foot casino and mezzanine midway, four hotel towers with 3,773 rooms, 455-space RV park, Adventuredome indoor amusement park, and big parking lots on Industrial behind the hotel. Also keep in mind that the Sky Las Vegas condo and Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare towers stand between Circus and the Festival Grounds.
We've come up with a few ideas, but we're anxious to see, in the comment boxes, what comes out of your feverish mid-week-morning minds.
Keep it exactly as is
Tear down Adventuredome and the RV park and add 3,000 rooms, making it the largest hotel in the world
Tear down the casino and hotel towers, leaving Adventuredome and the RV park, and build a Disneyland-like park, doubling or tripling the number of RV spaces
Tear the whole thing down and replace it with ...
a reincarnated Desert Inn and golf course
a huge Chinese-themed resort-casino
a Rio-themed resort-casino (subtly encouraging the new Rio owners to build an MLB stadium)
an MLB stadium (and, perhaps, an NBA arena)
more condo and timeshare towers
a Polynesian-style casino-resort complete with a replica Pacific Ocean
a resurrected Winter Wonderland in a dome, complete with downhill skiing
a 2,000-foot-tall observation tower that looks down on the Strat
an outlet mall
a parking lot for Allegiant Stadium
a string of cheap motels
a giant truck stop
the world's largest monster-truck track
a clown college
an outdoor cannabis farm
the world's largest brothel, called Lucky Lucky (would require a special dispensation from state legislators and county commissioners)