{"id":16057,"date":"2015-05-14T12:02:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T20:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16057"},"modified":"2015-05-14T15:21:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T23:21:19","slug":"new-life-for-the-trop-paragons-latest-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-life-for-the-trop-paragons-latest-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"New life for the Trop?; Paragon&#8217;s latest trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>David G. Schwartz<\/strong> muses on the brave, new world at the <strong>Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> &#8212; soon with 100% more <strong>Penn National Gaming<\/strong>. <a href=\"http:\/\/vegasseven.com\/2015\/05\/13\/new-era-tropicana\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">He assesses it as a win for both parties<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/trop-pic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-16058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/trop-pic.jpg\" alt=\"trop-pic\" width=\"300\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/trop-pic.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/trop-pic-150x116.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Penn gets a foothold at a strategic crossroads on the <strong>Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>. The Trop gets hooked up to Penn&#8217;s player database. When it comes to incentivizing players, Penn never before had a pot of gold at the end of its rainbow. Not even <strong>M Resort<\/strong> counts. Once it finds a nightclub formula that works (as Schwartz points out, <strong>Onex Corp<\/strong>. had three swings and struck out), maybe it can work on the entertainment, which currently consists of secondhand goods like <a href=\"http:\/\/deals.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shows\/raiding-the-rock-vault.html?CFID=149589945&amp;CFTOKEN=69967220\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Raiding the Rock Vault<\/em><\/a> &#8230; well named, since the Trop purloined it right out from under <strong>Westgate Las Vegas<\/strong>&#8216; nose.<\/p>\n<p>(Speaking of Westgate, it&#8217;s fallen to <!--more-->the tender mercies of <strong>Paragon Gaming<\/strong>, whose Vegas track record consists of being the caretaker the <strong>Sahara<\/strong> and later of the <strong>Riviera<\/strong> in the months leading up to its purchase and closure, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vegasinc.com\/business\/gaming\/2015\/may\/13\/riviera-operators-get-initial-approval-run-westgat\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">increasing occupancy 33%<\/a>. That means it&#8217;s out with <strong>Navegante Group<\/strong> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/casinos-gaming\/paragon-gaming-gets-tentative-nod-take-over-westgate-las-vegas-operations\" target=\"_blank\">in with 150K orphaned room nights<\/a> from the Riv plus a gaggle of conventions. Paragon&#8217;s expanded portfolio of responsibilities will extend to hotel and meeting operations, with Westgate curtailing its control to the property&#8217;s timeshare component.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/TROPICANA-VIEW-1B_LO-042010.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-12178\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/TROPICANA-VIEW-1B_LO-042010-300x206.jpg\" alt=\"TROPICANA VIEW 1B_LO 042010\" width=\"300\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/TROPICANA-VIEW-1B_LO-042010-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/TROPICANA-VIEW-1B_LO-042010-150x103.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/TROPICANA-VIEW-1B_LO-042010.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>My only qualm with Dr. Schwartz&#8217;s history of the Trop is when he lists <strong>Colony Capital<\/strong> as a rejected suitor for the Trop in the auction that saw it ultimately go to <strong>Columbia Sussex<\/strong>. Colony said it was bidding on the Trop but never submitted anything formal. Cleverly, then-owner <strong>Aztar Corp<\/strong>. was able to leverage\u00a0Colony&#8217;s phantom bid into a higher purchase price, as no one called Aztar&#8217;s bluff. Back then, there seemed to be no ceiling to what rival companies would pay for the Trop. By current, deflated standards, Penn&#8217;s $10.6 million\/acre is steep &#8230; but worth the investment when you look across the street and see <strong>MGM Grand<\/strong>, just for starters.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>San Francisco Giants<\/strong>\u00a0outfielder <strong>Hunter Pence<\/strong>&#8216;s Triple-A rehab assignment brought\u00a0him on a swing through Las Vegas. <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.mercurynews.com\/giants\/2015\/05\/13\/giants-reach-day-to-day-stage-to-activate-hunter-pence-matt-cain-throws-off-a-mound-for-first-time-in-six-weeks\/\" target=\"_blank\">Since he had Wednesday night off<\/a>, Pence headed over to the <strong>Hard Rock Hotel &amp; Casino<\/strong> and took in a <strong>Journey<\/strong> performance. We hope it got him motivated for tonight&#8217;s <strong>Sacramento River Cats<\/strong> game.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> managed to wait one whole day before exploiting the latest <strong>Amtrak<\/strong>\u00a0derailment\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitchy.com\/2015\/05\/12\/donald-trump-reacts-to-train-crash-the-only-one-to-fix-the-infrastructure-of-our-country-is-me\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">for PR gain<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>* While <strong>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> recovers from a rough week on the stand in the <strong>Steven Jacobs<\/strong> case, he can drink in an ex-President\u00a0<strong>George W. Bush<\/strong> painting of <strong>Marina Bay Sands<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/politics\/first-draft\/2015\/05\/14\/sheldon-adelson-receives-a-george-w-bush-original-painting\/\" target=\"_blank\">an excellent likeness<\/a> recently presented to the casino mogul. As for Adelson&#8217;s testimony, he&#8217;s turning out to be Jacobs&#8217; best witness.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Station Casinos<\/strong> has scrapped an ill-advised plan to borrow $300 million to pay millions in &#8216;dividends&#8217; to ownership (isn&#8217;t that what profits are for?) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/casinos-gaming\/station-casinos-gains-tentative-ok-be-treated-other-casino-companies\" target=\"_blank\">but is keeping mum<\/a> on its reasoning. We&#8217;re just thankful Station came to its senses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David G. Schwartz muses on the brave, new world at the Tropicana Las Vegas &#8212; soon with 100% more Penn National Gaming. He assesses it as a win for both parties. Penn gets a foothold at a strategic crossroads on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-life-for-the-trop-paragons-latest-trophy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,113,3,15,42,4,149,140,63,11,69,55,54,12,108,57,9,100,184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16057"}],"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=16057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16067,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16057\/revisions\/16067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}