Perhaps sensing that the Tropicana Atlantic City is slipping irretrievably from his grasp, Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera has taken his case to the media — seeking an audience with the editorial board of The Press of Atlantic City, no less. Butera has a persuasive manner, as you'll hear in the attached audio excerpts. Repositioning the Trop as a smoke-free property seems a bit out there but it has the virtue of novelty, so let's give it the benefit of the doubt. (There is a serious disconnect, though, between what Butera thinks the Trop to be worth and what the market is telling him.)
Butera's real sales job is going to be with the hard-to-convince New Jersey Casino Control Commission, of course … a task not made any easier when TropEnt sole shareholder William J. Yung III popped up at a New Jersey Supreme Court hearing on the Trop's fate, about as welcome a sight as Banquo's Ghost. Short of drawing and quartering Yung in front of the assembled NJCCC, I'm not sure what Butera can do that will guarantee him a fair hearing.
He might have one ace left to play by throwing his support to Carl Icahn's mooted stalking-horse bid. Even if Icahn doesn't really want the Trop, the mere possibility that he could throw all or most of $1.4 billion in secured debt onto the table should force rival bidder Cordish Co. to either pony up some real money (instead of incessantly haggling) or drop out. Of course, Butera needs Icahn more than Icahn needs him; the old corporate raider could always rustle up Richard Brown and the rest of the old ACEP band and run the Trop himself.
Still no word on whether Colony Capital will be run out of Resorts Atlantic City or not. The NJCCC is playing this close to the vest. From a logical standpoint, Colony's argument that Column Financial can't be allowed to take over because the latter doesn't have a gaming license (and never mind that Colony is three months in arrears on its mortgage) is silly. It's like saying your banker can't repossess your car because he doesn't have a driver's license.
However, the law is something else again and Colony appears to be on firm ground there unless Column can make the case for a state-run trusteeship. Not that such an arrangement worked out entirely well in the case of the Trop.
