{"id":203,"date":"2009-10-20T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T22:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/10\/20\/MGM-CityCenter-worth-488-billion"},"modified":"2009-10-20T18:37:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T22:37:00","slug":"mgm-citycenter-worth-4-88-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mgm-citycenter-worth-4-88-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM: CityCenter worth $4.88 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

MGM Mirage<\/strong> has announced that it's writing off approximately $1.3 billion (i.e., taking an "impairment charge<\/a>") against CityCenter<\/strong>, with $348 million of that chalked up to falling real estate values. (Some $174 million of that will apparently be fobbed off on MGM's partners, bringing MGM's writeoff down<\/a> to $1.1 billion.) The value of MGM's half-share of the project has been restated at $2.44 billion (a 31% decline). No word yet from Dubai World<\/strong> as to what it thinks its<\/em> half of CityCenter is worth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kirk Kerkorian<\/strong>'s Tracinda Corp<\/strong>. shook a rhetorical fist at Wall Street, stating in a press release that there is "substantial unrecognized value in MGM and CityCenter that is not reflected in the market value of MGM’s stock<\/em>." It's nice to know that even mega-corporations can feel underappreciated.<\/p>\n

Bottoming out?<\/strong> Air traffic into and out of Las Vegas<\/strong> was almost flat, year over year, -1.2% in September, helped by passenger-load increases — and I don't mean those hefty people who take up two seats — on nearly every domestic carrier not named US Airways<\/strong> (-26%). Considering that international traffic was -21%, this is augurs well for a return of domestic consumer confidence in Sin City. And, yes, flat is<\/em> the new "up."<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania: Rendell intervenes<\/strong>. Never accuse the Keystone State Lege of acting in haste. The table games bill is still mired in conference committe, prompting Gov. Ed Rendell<\/strong> (D) to wade into the fray<\/a>. Rendell's magic number for the amount of revenue table games must yield in fees and taxes is $200 million. To get there, the guv believes the tax rate must be 16%. But he's closer to the GOP position, warning that the higher levies favored by Dems<\/a> would "kill the golden goose" and deprive Little Johnny<\/strong>'s school of needed funding. Meanwhile, Rivers Casino<\/strong> continues to disappoint, with the lowest revenue-per-slot in the state.<\/p>\n

Finally, a taker!<\/strong> Out of left field, a contender has emerged for the orphaned casino license in Cherokee and Crawford counties in Kansas<\/strong>. You'll recall that it was awarded to Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, seemingly ages ago, but Penn — spooked by nearby tribal competition — all but spat on the license before leaving in a huff.<\/p>\n

Enter Ozark Trail Gaming<\/strong>, a consortium of Kansas businessmen, offering to build a $225 million, 900-slot, 30-table casino. After some bad experiences with carpetbagger casino developers trying to dictate terms to the Sunflower State, you have to think the Kansas Lottery Board<\/strong> will look kindly upon this native-son effort.<\/p>\n

\"\" ColSux loses again<\/strong>. A $41.5 million summary judgment has been slapped on Columbia Sussex<\/strong> for abrogating its purchase of the President<\/em> riverboat in St. Louis<\/strong> (now the property of ColSux arch-foe Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>). Regulators for Missouri<\/strong> didn't like the looks of ColSux and its CEO, William J. Yung III<\/strong> (above<\/em>). The latter pulled his license application and used that as an excuse to void the President<\/em> purchase, but a federal district judge wasn't buying it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former President<\/em> owners were also suing ColSux for jacking up parking rates for casino patrons by 560% (no, that is not a typo), a truly Yungian move. If poetic justice were served in this case, the court would award the ship to ColSux. Since the President<\/em>'s days on the water are numbered and Yung will licensed in Missouri only in his wildest dreams, trying to dispose of that near-worthless asset might be the aptest punishment of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MGM Mirage has announced that it's writing off approximately $1.3 billion (i.e., taking an "impairment charge") against CityCenter, with $348 million of that chalked up to falling real estate values. (Some $174 million of that will apparently be fobbed off … 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":[56,15,28,14,45,11,39,91,69,95,30,33,25,31,19,100,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203"}],"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=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}