Blast from the past

In this case, it’s a blast of hot air from the pages of the defunct and dreadful Liberty Watch magazine, whose back numbers still adorn the Web, but whose ink-and-paper incarnation has devolved into a loose smattering of blogs. Let’s take the Wayback Machine to December 2008, when the cover of Liberty Watch bore a fawning — and wisely anonymous — ode to “Our Top 10 Gamers: When Others Bust, These Guys Build.”

Given the parlous state of the casino industry in late 2008, Liberty Watch‘s pronouncements suggest the author was hunched over a crystal ball that was, if not cracked, exceptionally dusty. Of the 1oth man on the list, he writes, “[William] Weidner knows the right tone to adopt with every crisis, and he’s got what it takes to carry the [sic] Sands out of its funk and into another period of growth and prosperity.”

Never mind that Weidner’s testimony had recently sunk Las Vegas Sands‘ case against Richard Suen, who successfully sued for a “success fee” for helping get Sands into Macao. By early March, Weidner (left) would be history. Sands may yet emerge from its funk but ex-prez Weidner has done a disappearing act. As for always adopting the right tone, would that include Weidner’s witness-stand remark that all Chinese look alike? Perhaps the “witless stand” would have been an apter pulpit for such comments.

Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman (#6) is painted as “a leader who will speak the truth” and an apostle of fiscal restraint. Yes, and pay no attention to the $24 billion-plus debt load behind the curtain.

Station Casinos supremos Frank III & Lorenzo Fertitta (#5) “always put their money where their passion lies.” (Like Orange County real estate, perhaps?) They were, we’re told, keeping the soon-to-go-bankrupt “Stations [sic] Casinos strong and credit-worthy.” The brothers “seem very likely to [but didn’t] loan the company between $450 million and $500 million” and — to be pedantic — most of the money would probably have come from hapless partner Colony Capital. The article also fails to ask why, if Station is the fifth-largest company in the business, CEO Frank Fertitta III (pictured) pays himself the highest base salary of any chief exec in the industry. (Strange that a magazine supposedly devoted to the ideals of fiscal conservatism would idolize some of the worst spendthrifts in gaming.)

As much as I admire Bill Boyd (#4), he’d long since vacated the chairman and CEO titles Liberty Watch re-appended upon him. Since January 2008, they’d been held by Keith Smith, and it is he who ought to be credited with having the huevos to call a halt on Echelon and with the successful relaunch of Blue Chip, up in Indiana. “Bill Boyd, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Boyd Gaming, [may have been] keeping up with the changing times instead of sticking too closely to the past models” but Liberty Watch sure wasn’t.

“[C]utting payroll is the first thing most corporate executives look to do in order to justify their cushy salaries,” the writer says by way of praising South Point owner Michael Gaughan‘s (#3) refusal to do so. And yet, MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren (#7) is lauded for “an expense reduction program, which began as an initiative to streamline operations following a string of mergers but became more focused on cutting costs to offset earnings that have declined from a year ago. That’s what a leader does.” [Cue fanfare] That also sounds like a long-winded euphemism for “cutting payroll.” Intellectual inconsistency much?

Finally, there’s this plaudit for the #2 man on the list: “Don’t expect [Fontainebleau CEO Glenn] Schaeffer to cut any corners whatsoever in constructing what will surely be one of the most elegant pleasure palaces in Las Vegas.” One year and countless cost overruns later, truer words may never have been written. And say, whatever happened to that Schaeffer guy?

“Fontainebleau will be boldly going where few other hotels have gone before.” If F-bleau becomes — as some have recommended — the first Strip megaresort to be imploded prior to completion, yes, it will have achieved an historic first. But if Liberty Watch meant going into bankruptcy, F-bleau needn’t worry: It will find plenty of company there … including “Stations Casinos.”