{"id":16041,"date":"2015-05-12T10:49:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T18:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16041"},"modified":"2015-05-12T10:50:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T18:50:15","slug":"adieu-monte-carlo-sunny-april-in-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/adieu-monte-carlo-sunny-april-in-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Adieu, Monte Carlo; Sunny April in Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judging from how it bastardized the Strip facade of Monte Carlo<\/strong>, it’s clear MGM Resorts International<\/strong> doesn’t quite know what to do with the place. CEO Jim \"Monte<\/a>Murren<\/strong> tacitly confirmed this recently when he said MGM was studying myriad options for the property<\/a>, up to and including rebranding it as something else — hopefully not a \u00a0meaningless tag like Aria<\/strong> or Vdara<\/strong>. Some hints to Murren’s thinking were his reference to Monte Carlo as the “gateway” to The Park<\/strong> and the new MGM\/AEG<\/strong> arena, characterizing the hotel as the cradle to the sports venue.<\/p>\n

If MGM is going to sink millions into reinventing Monte Carlo, it’s also likely to push it into a higher price tier<\/a>. Given its proximity to the arena, that certainly makes sense from a supply\/demand perspective. No more days<\/a> of\u00a0\u201cthe experience of royalty for a value price.\u201d CBRE Group<\/strong> broker Michael Parks<\/strong> likened the plan to the Imperial Palace<\/strong>-into-Linq<\/strong> transformation … an unfortunate analogy and hopefully not a prophetic one.<\/p>\n

* Add Station Casinos<\/strong> CFO Marc Falcone<\/strong> to the list of gaming executives who deviate from Steve Wynn<\/strong>‘s gloomy outlook for the Las Vegas<\/strong> economy.\u00a0\u201cWe believe the \"red_rock\"<\/a>increase in the average hourly wage is a reflection of the Las Vegas business community becoming more comfortable with the outlook for the local economy, together with the lower unemployment rate, which is pushing the supply-demand dynamic in favor of the employee,\u201d he told Wall Street<\/strong> gaming analysts. Falcone has reason to be bullish. Station not only increased overall revenue 5% in 1Q15, it more than doubled its profits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Particularly strong was the hotel segment, whose revenues rose 11%. However, that’s not to slough off gaming revenues, which have increased for three straight quarters. Falcone also expects new construction on the Strip to trickle down into Station’s coffers, in the form of increased locals play. Given that the big Strip operators have struggled to improve room revenues, Station’s outstanding performance in that sphere suggests that priced-out consumers are looking off-Strip for a place to lay their heads at night.<\/p>\n

* A rising tide of gambling lifted all boats in Detroit<\/strong>, led by MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> ($52 million) with its 43% market share and 10%. MotorCity<\/strong> ($40.5 million) got a 6% boost, along with 34% of the market. The balance ($28 million) went to Greektown Casino<\/strong>, up 4%. Compared to some of its neighboring states’ overall gross, Detroit’s $120.5 million<\/a> is the picture of health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judging from how it bastardized the Strip facade of Monte Carlo, it’s clear MGM Resorts International doesn’t quite know what to do with the place. CEO Jim Murren tacitly confirmed this recently when he said MGM was studying myriad options … 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":[65,56,44,7,11,57,9,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16041"}],"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=16041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16043,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16041\/revisions\/16043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}