{"id":1034,"date":"2008-08-27T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/8\/27\/Just-as-I-suspected-"},"modified":"2008-08-27T10:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-27T18:10:00","slug":"just-as-i-suspected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/just-as-i-suspected\/","title":{"rendered":"Just as I suspected …"},"content":{"rendered":"

… and tried to imply the other day, we have two conflicting agendas<\/a> in the ixnayed Casino Aztar<\/em> sale. One is that of the creditors, who think the boat can fetch a higher price than the $220 million for which Columbia Sussex<\/strong> CEO William J. Yung III<\/strong> had to settle. (You will recall that prospective buyers were distinctly thin on the ground at the time.)<\/p>\n

They're walking a tightrope, as they don't want to alienate putative buyer Eldorado Resorts<\/strong> and, should Eldorado walk (having already been told its money's not good enough) they don't want to be stampeded into a fire sale before Sept. 28. That's when disposition of the vessel passes into the hands of the State of Indiana.<\/p>\n

The other endgame, as I tried to hint earlier, is that of Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Scott Butera<\/strong>. He, creditors fear, may be trying to hang onto Casino Aztar<\/em> by putting it back on the market and then saying — as was already bruited in the Wall Street Journal<\/em> — that no offer is good enough, so TropEnt is keeping it. Which means creditors, instead of getting hundreds of millions of dollars now, would be asked to settle for a dribble of cash over the long haul. Butera seems able to charm the birds off the trees<\/a>, but that might be a tough sell, even for him.<\/p>\n

(The Evansville Courier Press<\/em> story comes with a helpful timeline. Note the succession of three general managers in 14 months — a period in which Casino Aztar<\/em>'s revenues sank lower and lower and lower, only beginning to rise again in May.)<\/p>\n

Then again<\/strong>, the would-be casino titan whose company managed to lose $1 billion-plus in a year still has his fans. Raves Courier Press<\/em> reader lmajors_koch<\/strong>, "[Bill] Yung is the smartest man alive!!!! He's going to end up keeping Casino Aztar<\/em> before this is all over with. You guys just watch."<\/p>\n

Yeah, we will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… and tried to imply the other day, we have two conflicting agendas in the ixnayed Casino Aztar sale. One is that of the creditors, who think the boat can fetch a higher price than the $220 million for which … 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":[15,68],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034"}],"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=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}