We haven't seen the figures you refer to, but it's totally feasible that South Point enjoyed its best results of 2012 in December, in spite of that month generally being the slowest in the Las Vegas calendar, with many shows choosing to go "dark" and give performers their annual break as tourists stay home for the holidays, which in turn helps perpetuate a slowdown in visitation. When owner Michael Gaughan observed not too long ago in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun that, "We used to have three bad weeks in Las Vegas, in December," he was talking about the city in general. But as the owner of South Point concluded, "Now we have just one" and, for his property, December has every likelihood of actually being a stellar month.
The reason is simple: the National Finals Rodeo, which first moved to Las Vegas in 1985 and counts South Point among its major sponsors. Gaughan, whose family has long had ties with the horse world, and who built a special arena at his property specifically to house equestrian events, related in the same interview how NFR week now fills 5-6,000 rooms in the city each year. Although, as he acknowledged, that isn't a huge figure by Vegas standards (contrast with January's Consumer Electronics Show, for example, that brings 150,000+ delegates to town, or the MAGIC fashion expo, running right now, that's responsible for drawing some 80,000 attendees), it's still a definite shot in the arm at a traditionally slow time, and the point the owner of South Point didn't make is that many of those 5,000+ filled rooms will be at his hotel, which always embraces "cowboy week" with gusto, including nightly events and promos, not to mention room-discounts for rodeo fans, who will therefore tend to stay -- and eat, drink, and play -- at the south-Strip property. It's a crowd that tends to like to have a good time, which means the money will be flowing when NFR week comes around -- right into South Point's coffers.
