What does Tom Reeg know that the rest of us don’t? In the first big contract signing since the Covid-19 pandemic (still playing an extended engagement in Las Vegas) hit, Caesars Entertainment has inked a deal with Usher to play the Colosseum. Actually, it looks like a safe bet, as Usher wouldn’t debut until July 16 of next year, by which point we will surely have turned the corner on Coronavirus. There aren’t a lot of specifics on the show at the point, other than that it will encompass both 20-year-old hits and new songs alike. But you don’t have to wait long to buy tickets, which go on sale next Thursday at 7 a.m. Eastern time (a fan presale will conducted from Monday to Wednesday). This will either give you a reason to return to the Las Vegas Strip or serve as a litmus test of how soon you are ready to come back.
$500 million apiece for a Manhattan casino license may be a bit rich, it seems. Not with the way prime hotel real estate is falling in value. A Chinese private equity firm, Cindat, is cashing out of seven pocket hotels for $400 million—a substantial loss on the $571 million it paid. Realtor Kevin Davis tried to spin it as a positive: “Now is a time to invest in New York at a historically attractive long-term basis. We are in the market with a number of transactions in New York City right now and are seeing tremendous interest from both domestic and foreign investors.” If they don’t include Las Vegas Sands do they even matter?
AC Expressway toll increase will be approx 40%. Beside road and toll booth improvements, it is supposed to fund a train station near the AC airport, and a down payment of $200 Million for a new passenger light rail line between Glassboro and Camden said to cost $2 BILLION DOLLARS. The AC airport is one airline away (Spirit Airlines) from being like Tunica, MS, that has an airport, but no airlines. The people who fly Spirit Airlines to FL park their autos at the airport lot, they don’t need a station. For the Glassboro-Camden light rail line, no matter that the “wheel & spoke” model of public transportation became obsolete 40 years ago in the suburbs. Why would Murphy & Co take auto tolls and spend them on a train station and a new rail line? It would create temporary high paying construction jobs, and better yet, all kinds of high cost “market studies” for the politician’s friends and donors. Give part of the toll money to the poor people of AC, “dream on”.
On the Vital Vegas Twitter account they have a picture of that hideous looking green pond (or moat) out in front of Excalibur. That pond belongs in the 70’s TV show “Land of the Lost” but not on the Strip. What a farce.