We’ve checked out the arena webcam (see our Las Vegas webcams section for the link) and seen exactly what you’ve described. However, MGM Resorts International is insistent that it’s got enough, maybe more than enough parking to handle the influx of attendees that the MGM/Anschutz Entertainment Group arena will draw. "We have thousands and thousands of vacant parking spaces right now," MGM CEO Jim Murren told Las Vegas Review-Journal gossip columnist Norm Clarke. "We oversized the garage at New York-New York because we thought we were going to build another tower there. We never did … Of course here at CityCenter, we have a tremendous amount of parking embedded into the CityCenter resort complex."
Elaborated MGM spokesman Gordon Absher, "The same is true of the Monte Carlo Self-Park garage, which was also built with excess capacity, anticipating further nearby development. Additionally, far more surface spaces are available south of Tropicana Road at Excalibur and Luxor that can also be applied to the arena."
R-J tourism columnist Richard Velotta suggested cannibalizing the Excalibur surface parking for a new garage but, so far, the idea has fallen on deaf ears. Or, as MGM puts it, "An additional on-site parking structure was not contemplated because adequate parking already exists to support the project."
According to MGM, the full menu of parking options is as follows:
"Locals attending arena events could utilize any of these MGM Resort parking options," Absher resumes. "While these might not be immediately adjacent to the arena, depending on direction of travel to and from the event and plans for dinner or other activities before or after, these options could prove more convenient than parking in a facility located closest to the arena itself."
But how is one to know where to go in search of parking – or will it be a trial-and-error process? (That could be pretty hairy, given what Strip traffic is like even on slow nights.) "We plan to utilize ticketing and social media apps to help direct drivers with traffic and parking directions," Absher says. "The New York-New York garage will be the primary parking facility for anyone who drives directly to the arena. We anticipate it will handle a majority of the drive-in traffic on levels 5 through 9. Once that facility is full, we will divert traffic to the Monte Carlo/Aria garage." (Which does seem to beg the awkward question as to what will transpire if there are simultaneous events at the MGM/AEG arena and at the announced but yet-to-be built 5,000-seat Monte Carlo Theater, but perhaps the scheduling powers-that-be will just ensure that such a scenario never arises?)
In any case, MGM expects most of the 20,000 arena seats to be filled by people already staying on the Strip. "Visitors staying in nearby hotels, either walking or using public transportation (taxi, limo, bus, ride-hailing service), will comprise the majority of attendees for every event," concludes Absher. "We anticipate this will be a reliably consistent factor." In other words, there is high degree of confidence at MGM that the parking conundrum will solve itself.
