Vegas soccer no sure thing; Scientific Games wins thrice over

A perspicacious gentleman named Steven R. Brown wrote the following on Facebook in response to my reportage of the apparent shelving of Wynn Paradise Park: “Steve Wynn‘s creativity can be outlandish at times (Like his idea back in the early 90s to turn parts of Downtown Las Vegas into a mini-Venice.) and at times, a stroke of genius (Mirage and Bellagio.). Paradise Park is a mix of the two. The lagoon itself is not a bad concept and would fit in with overall property. The amusement park rides and the giant ape belongs down the street at Circus Circus, not at a high-end resort. Make it something that brings to mind somewhere like the French and Italian Rivera.”

And then to the topic of major-league sports and Sin City …

“MGM Resorts is going to be fighting with a number of cities for an MLS team down the road. The league does plan to expand to 28 teams, but there is no timetable on when the league will open the race for the 27th and 28th teams. The league has 23 teams this season, have already announced the 24th and 25th clubs (Nashville and the long-delayed Miami team, AKA Beckham United) that are slated to start play in 2020 and there is a 26th team that will be awarded to either Sacramento, Detroit or Cincinnati [some] time this year. So presumably two of those cities will be in the running when the league moves forward with adding the 27th and 28th teams, and also expect cities like St. Louis, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Diego, Tampa, and Charlotte to join the race (The current situation with the Columbus Crew could also impact this race as well. If the Crew move to Austin, Columbus could be in the race for one of those last two teams. If the team remains in Columbus, that could trigger an expansion bid in Austin or San Antonio.).” In other words, it’s not the abracadabra that Jim Murrren would have us believe. Thank you, Mr. Brown.

* “Given challenging weather, a difficult January calendar comparison, and a potential malaise post a strong November/December period, regional trends in the 1Q18 to date have been lackluster,” writes Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli. This, as ever, leads to the conclusion that March will see the unleashing of Wall Street‘s favorite chimera, “pent-up demand.” Due to its strength in the Las Vegas market, Boyd Gaming is observed to be tracking best relative to Pinnacle Entertainment, Eldorado Resorts and Penn National Gaming. Of the four, Penn is underperforming the most, so Santarelli expects a negative pre-announcement of results, to soften the blow.

* Congratulations to Scientific Games, winner of two award for corporate social responsibility from the International Communitas Awards. In the “Green Initiatives” field, Scientific won the Excellence in Ethical &. Environmental Responsibility Award. It also carried home the Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility Award for its hurricane-relief work — 32 tons of supplies and $90,000 in cash donations — in Puerto Rico (while the U.S. government twiddled its thumbs). As though all this good news were not enough, Scientific was awarded the contract for the launch of the National Lottery of Kazakhstan, an effort that will encompass 3,000 retailers. Proceeds will go to the Ministry of Sports & Culture, including the Kazakhstan Olympic team. So the next time Kazakhstan ‘medals’ in the Olympics, you will have Scientific to thank for it.