{"id":10171,"date":"2012-12-03T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T02:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10171"},"modified":"2012-12-03T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T02:56:11","slug":"springfield-and-then-there-were-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/springfield-and-then-there-were-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Springfield: Ameristar pulls the chicken switch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In an even more surprising development than Steve Wynn<\/strong> getting voted out of Foxborough<\/strong>, the seemingly leading contender for a western Massachusetts<\/strong> casino abruptly withdrew from the fray<\/a> last Friday night. In a stunning abdication, Ameristar Casinos<\/strong> CEO Gordon Kanofsky<\/strong> allowed that he didn’t feel had his company had enough of a chance to emerge victorious in Springfield<\/strong> — despite having only two rivals. One of them, MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, has a balance sheet sodden with long-term debt. The other, Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, is so promiscuously committed to new casino projects — and so beleaguered on its new frontiers in Maryland<\/strong> and Nevada<\/strong>, that you wonder how much capital and managerial focus it can muster for Springfield, especially as it’s presently trying to split itself into a pair of symbiotic companies, one a REIT and one a casino operator.<\/p>\n

Having left $16 million on the table in land purchases, Ameristar balked at putting another $675,000 into the kitty<\/a> for various and sundry applications processes. Such flip-floppery shakes one’s faith in the company’s leadership. However, since Ameristar and MGM share a player-marketing relationship, perhaps MGM CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> made it worth Kanofsky’s while to turn tail and run. Or possibly Ameristar’s confidence waned in inverse proportional ratio to the project budget, last sighted at $910 million … insanely high for a regional, semi-rural casino and comparable to the imprudence that marked Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>‘s runaway cost. Or perhaps, as residents and Ameristar veep Troy Stremming<\/strong> suggest<\/a>, The Fix Was In.<\/p>\n

\"\"Of course, Springfield isn’t the only player in the game. Hard Rock Entertainment<\/strong> is stalking the region, looking for a new site, Holyoke<\/strong> having become Splitsville. Then there’s the long-mooted Mohegan Sun<\/strong> project in Palmer<\/strong>. Given the Mohegan Gaming Authority<\/strong>‘s ongoing financial struggles, it’s a surprise that anyone continues to take this paper tiger seriously, but so they do. Looking at Ameristar’s budget and probable return on investment (i.e., low), Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> deemed the company’s retreat “prudent.” He also thinks there may be an ulterior motive for Kanofsky (left<\/em>) dumping Springfield: a clearing of the decks in order for Ameristar to attempt a REIT split such as the one Penn is attempting. Based on the pogo-stick effect the REIT announcement had on Penn’s stock, the notion of Ameristar execs suddenly having dollar signs dancing in their heads — and expansion be damned — seems the most credible of all.<\/p>\n

What will Ameristar do next? Two words: “Special dividend.” You read it here first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an even more surprising development than Steve Wynn getting voted out of Foxborough, the seemingly leading contender for a western Massachusetts casino abruptly withdrew from the fray last Friday night. In a stunning abdication, Ameristar Casinos CEO Gordon Kanofsky … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,28,53,72,112,11,69,25,12,32,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10175,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions\/10175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}