According to Boyd Gaming, it costs the company $2.6 million per month (or $31 million a year) to maintain the Echelon site in its present state. The company doesn’t provide profit/loss figures for individual properties other than Borgata, in Atlantic City. However, in its last full year of operation (2005), the Stardust reported $24.7 million in cash flow – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, etc. That works out to $2.1 million a month. The Stardust closed on Nov. 1, 2006. That year, it was on pace to generate $18.4 million in cash flow, at a rate of $1.5 million a month.
What of the subsequent economic factors that hit all of Las Vegas? It is the current writer's considered opinion that the Stardust would have ridden the Great Recession out far better than the Riviera or Sahara did. The latter was a stand-alone property (no "feeder" casinos) and the Riv might as well have been. Also, Boyd has a huge cash flow from Atlantic City, plus a diverse regional, downtown, and suburban presence: ancillary revenue streams that would have helped the Stardust ride out any storm.
Plus, on a purely anecdotal level, the 'Dust seems to enjoy a higher level of affection from customers who like old-school Vegas than did the Riv or Sahara. Bottom line: It would have cost Boyd less, on balance, to keep the Stardust operational than to have a suspended construction project sitting where the Stardust used to be and closing the old gal when the market was at its peak (and the property long since having paid for itself) will surely be looked upon as one of the worst miscalculations in Strip history.
