It’s no wonder October was a bad month for the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown. Visitation to Sin City fell 49.5% and room revenue tumbled 61%. Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg could, for the sake of argument, be right that Las Vegas will come back bigger than ever at any time in its history. But in the near term it’s pretty clear that things are going to get worse before they get better. Even the locals-casino bubble has burst. Among the factors hurting the Strip last month was that there were zero conventions (a situation unlikely to change anytime soon), leading to woeful hotel occupancy of 47%. Reducing available-room inventory by 8,600 units didn’t help much, even if it was a move in the right direction. Average room rates declined 24% to $112/night and revenue per available room was a meager $52.
I will never forget Tom Brady doing the “victory formation shuffle” last year, he was at 1,000 yards for his career, he did not want to go backwards just to win a ballgame, because hey, its all about personal achievement, right? Brady lurched forward, risking both himself and his offensive line to injury. Some NFL players are keenly aware of the fantasy, betting, and statistical implications of each and every play, the poor fella who lost the giant parlay on the kneels just picked the wrong quarterback, Mahomes is going to own so many NFL records he could care less about his career stats, he will crush all of Brady’s records if he ends up playing about three quarters as long as Brady, including a very good shot at getting as many Super Bowl rings…