Question of the Day - 18 August 2017

Vegas doesn’t do “zeitgeist,” so we would lean toward the “running-out-of-novel-ideas” theory.

More specifically, Las Vegas is a copycat market, where everyone looks to one pacesetter — usually Steve Wynn — and follows what he did. The success of the Mirage brought us Wynn’s own Treasure Island, as well as Excalibur, Rio, Luxor, New York-New York, Paris, the Orleans … you get the idea. Now that he’s pitched the notion of a giant animatronic ape for Wynn Paradise Park, robotic animals could be the next fixation. Maybe Resorts World Las Vegas could display animatronic pandas in lieu of the real ones they announced and might not be able to deliver.

We think architect Paul Steelman put his finger on the problem in 2010, when picking up the Jay Sarno Award at Global Gaming Expo. He contended that Strip resorts were becoming catch-all developments that didn't want to overlook something the competition had. As an example, he mentioned that he'd designed a successful brew pub, causing him to receive overtures from eight other casino operators, each wanting him to do the same thing for them. 

This isn’t the first stampede we’ve seen. In the early part of this century, condo-hotels were all the rage and we kept hearing about the “urbanization” of the Strip. Turns out the market for Strip condos was all sucked up by MGM Resorts International’s Signature towers, leaving other hotel-condo developers (especially MGM itself) out in the cold. Before that, “metaresorts” with multiple hotels were the idea of the day. MGM completed CityCenter, but imitations by Caesars Entertainment (Epicentre) and Las Vegas Sands (MEGACENTER — yes, all caps) were forestalled by the Great Recession.

To return to the meat of your question, we now have three Public Houses, which undoubtedly must be confusing for the diner who can’t remember whether he’s going to Irvine’s new place at the Tropicana, or sampling the extensive beer list at the Venetian’s Public House, or tucking into some hearty fare at Luxor’s. To add to the confusion, there’s Todd English P.U.B. at Crystals, which stands for “Public Urban Bar” — a term that probably won't enter the vernacular.

Then there's the arena phenomenon. Thomas and Mack spawned the MGM Grand Garden, which in turn inspired the Orleans and T-Mobile arenas, plus the equestrian center and exhibit hall at South Point. Also on the drawing board is the All-Net Arena.

The Ferris wheel craze was particularly perplexing. We’d like to see the marketing studies showing that the Las Vegas Strip could support two such erections. As it turned out, one's been plenty. The rival wheel, an unaffiliated project, metaphorically collapsed, its twin pillars standing against the Vegas skyline as a stark reminder of copycatism and oneupmanship. Whether or not Las Vegas has taken the lesson to heart remains to be seen.