{"id":14248,"date":"2014-08-04T12:16:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T20:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14248"},"modified":"2019-12-30T08:24:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T16:24:05","slug":"mgms-urban-renewal-ruffin-rides-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mgms-urban-renewal-ruffin-rides-again\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM’s urban renewal; Ruffin rides again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MGM<\/a>Despite an atmosphere of uncertainty in Massachusetts<\/strong>, executives at MGM Resorts International<\/strong> are putting their faith in a November victory at the ballot box. They’ve closed on the purchase of two tornado-damaged buildings, the Springfield State Armory<\/strong> (shown<\/em>) and the Zanetti School<\/strong>. MGM will finish the 2011 tornado’s work on the school, leveling it. The armory’s facade, however, will be preserved and incorporated into MGM Springfield<\/strong>. The total cost was $3.2 million<\/a>\u00a0— pocket change for the casino giant. It’s also a potential tax write off if things go south on Election Day, although we certainly hope they don’t. For this project to come so tantalizingly close to fruition for Springfield<\/strong> and then be snatched away would be a cruel blow to a city that could use the economic break.<\/p>\n

\"Murren\"<\/a>Jim Murren<\/strong> will never be mistaken in the street for Kris Kringle<\/strong>\u00a0but the project is a Christmas tree for Springfield, starting with $10 million in taxes during the three-year construction phase. Once the casino opens, MGM pays the city nearly $18 million a year<\/a>, plus revenue participation … although the revenue-sharing portion of the arrangement is predicated upon a riskily optimistic figure of $479 million in annual gross gaming revenues. (The Penn National Effect rides again! If MGM comes up short, it presumably pays nothing.) Another $5 million a year will be split between community development, schools, police, fire and other services. Even if the revenue split doesn’t come off, it’s a “george” deal for Springfield.<\/p>\n

Camptown races redux?<\/strong> That fourth and final Kansas<\/strong> casino license may finally have a taker … Phil Ruffin<\/strong>. He’s talking racino<\/a> with the \"Camptown\"<\/a>Quapaw Tribe<\/strong> and his Camptown Greyhound Park<\/strong> has much of the necessary infrastructure (such as being wired for slot machines) already in place. It’s estimated it would take six months<\/a> to get gambling up and running. “This will be a full-scale, state-of-the-art casino. I’d say it would be a slightly smaller version of Downstream Casino<\/strong>,” Ruffin enthused, “with the kind of style and quality the Quapaw Tribe is known for.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to figures published by the State of Kansas, a Crawford County<\/strong> casino would make $46 million its first year, $56 million its second. The average annual take of the three other Kansas casinos is $184 million for Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Kansas Star<\/strong>, $139 million for Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s Kansas Speedway<\/strong> casino and $42 million for Boot Hill Casino<\/strong>, in Dodge City<\/strong>. In that context, the revenue projections for Camptown Park look doable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite an atmosphere of uncertainty in Massachusetts, executives at MGM Resorts International are putting their faith in a November victory at the ballot box. They’ve closed on the purchase of two tornado-damaged buildings, the Springfield State Armory (shown) and the … 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":[65,60,14,26,45,112,11,69,119,111,31,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14248"}],"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=14248"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25726,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14248\/revisions\/25726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}