{"id":17684,"date":"2016-02-03T12:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17684"},"modified":"2021-12-19T06:57:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T14:57:09","slug":"mgms-brass-balls-seminoles-dream-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mgms-brass-balls-seminoles-dream-big\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM’s brass balls; Seminoles dream big"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegans are still in an uproar over MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s new pay-for-parking policy. And yet MGM had the gall\u00a0to issue a press \"City<\/a>release calling the added fees part of a “strategy to provide significant improvements.” Yes, because paying more for the same product is always an improvement. MGM was even so nervy as to call the $10 self-parking and $17 valet-parking charges “modest.” Executives at MGM need to get out of their biosphere and breathe some fresh air. Seventeen bucks is real money to you and me.<\/p>\n

The meat of MGM’s announcement was that it was offloading the bulk of its parking-attendant staff to service provider SP+<\/strong>.\u00a0Parking employees are promised continuation of the same salaries and benefits they enjoyed under MGM. The exceptions to the new policy are the attendants at Luxor<\/strong>, Excalibur<\/strong> and Circus Circus<\/strong>, who are covered by a separate collective-bargaining agreement.\u00a0SP+ is a real coffee achiever, having grown from one Chicago<\/strong> parking lot in 1929 to two million today. Evidently MGM felt the oncoming T-Mobile Arena<\/strong>\u00a0demanded outside parking expertise, for it cites SP+’s experience handling Super Bowl<\/strong> and World Cup<\/strong> parking challenges as a criterion for choosing the concessionaire. So you’ll still be shelling out big bucks for parking, just to a different paymaster.<\/p>\n

* Ever wanted to stay inside an 800-room guitar? You’ll get your chance if Hard Rock International<\/strong> can finance it, which shouldn’t be a heavy lift. Of the design for a new, 34-story tower at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood<\/strong>, company CEO James Allen<\/strong> said, “We could have easily just built some rectangular building … but the tribe is once again trying to create something that is iconic, that creates international tourism coming to Florida<\/strong>.” The striking design managed to upstage Florida Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> (R), who was sharing the podium with Allen<\/a> when the big guitar was unveiled. The tower, which would dwarf the existing hotel, is part of a planned $1.8 billion expansion, to be financed with proceeds from the new compact between Scott and the Seminole Tribe<\/strong>. A nightclub and five restaurants would also be added.<\/p>\n

“We truly think this will rival not only anything in Florida, but Atlantis<\/strong> and anything in the world,” said Allen, who added that Seminole Hard Rock Tampa<\/strong>, also due for expansion, would get a new, more \"rick-scott\"<\/a>conventional, 500-room hotel tower, plus a 2,000-seat concert hall and a helipad for high rollers. You’ve got to hand it to the Seminoles: They don’t think small. They’re also assisting\u00a0Scott (left<\/em>) in making the case that the new compact brings with it new economic benefits for the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

Also helping Allen and Scott pitch the compact was florist\u00a0Melissa Oceola Demeo<\/strong> who “said her business has grown from five employees to more than 100 full-and part-time employees. She said she buys and installs over 35,000 flowers annually at the casino.” Scott, who was greeted like a movie star, outlined the compact as a choice between losing 3,800 jobs or adding 4,800.\u00a0“I grew up in a family that struggled for work, so I think jobs are very, very important,” he added, saying that the onus was now upon the Legislature to do something about the compact.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"City<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Las Vegans are still in an uproar over MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s new pay-for-parking policy. And yet MGM had the gall to issue a press release calling the added fees part of a “strategy to provide significant improvements.” Yes, because paying more for the same product is always an improvement. MGM was even so nervy as to call the $10 self-parking and $17 valet-parking charges “modest.” Executives at MGM need to get out of their biosphere and breathe some fresh air. Seventeen bucks is real money to you and me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegans are still in an uproar over MGM Resorts International‘s new pay-for-parking policy. And yet MGM had the gall\u00a0to issue a press release calling the added fees part of a “strategy to provide significant improvements.” Yes, because paying more … 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":[65,36,11,200,9,100,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17684"}],"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=17684"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30495,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17684\/revisions\/30495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}