Question of the Day - 12 August 2024

That rumor originated with blogger “Starfish,” but doesn’t seem to have gained much traction. And for good reason, in our humble opinion.

For those who might not remember, Delano is a standalone 43-story 1,117-all-suite hotel tower next to Mandalay Bay. When it opened in late 2003, only four years after MBay, it was called THEhotel. It was rebranded and renovated to become Delano Las Vegas in 2014 (named for Franklin Roosevelt's middle name). 

Rebranding it again as the Mirage doesn't make much sense to us. For one, Hard Rock International will own the name Mirage until the hotel-casino that replaces it, Hard Rock Las Vegas, opens sometime in 2027. So any re-use of the brand is at least three years off.

Secondly, it's hard to imagine that MGM Resorts would immediately slap the moniker of the iconic and beloved Mirage on any old hotel, which Delano might be. It doesn't even have its own casino; Delano guests play at Mandalay Bay and Luxor. 

Test the rumor for yourself. What images come to mind when you hear the name "Mirage?" For us, they're an erupting volcano, a rainforest atrium, a huge front-desk aquarium, two giant theaters, white tigers, and Steve Wynn, none of which is on offer at the Delano. The latter is a fine but sober hotel with minimal amenities. Suddenly calling it “the Mirage” would be crashingly incongruous.

For the official story, we turned to MGM spokeswoman Stacy Hamilton. She said that MGM still owns the brand, but that there are “no additional details to share at this time.” Which seems to be a nice corporate way of kiboshing this rumor.

In the meantime, let’s give MGM three years and see what happens. The Mirage is such a good brand that we can’t conceive of MGM keeping it in a drawer forever. 

When and where will they redeploy it? Well, that Osaka, Japan, megaresort is supposed to open in 2030 …