{"id":295,"date":"2009-07-17T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T21:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/7\/17\/Case-Bets-Fbleau-Adelson-Oscar"},"modified":"2009-07-17T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-17T21:03:00","slug":"case-bets-fbleau-adelson-oscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-fbleau-adelson-oscar\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: F'bleau, Adelson, Oscar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether it's the banks or the subcontractors, somebody's going to take a big screwing at Fontainebleau<\/strong>. That's the nub of a new lawsuit, whereby developer Jeffrey Soffer<\/strong> asserts that Turnberry West Construction<\/strong> (which he also owns) has superior repayment rights to those of the project's backers.<\/p>\n

I believe this is called, "One hand washes the other." However, the legal issues involved make fascinating reading<\/a>. Some new-to-Vegas casino developers have screwed the pooch and eventually come out smelling like roses (Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, for one). I don't Soffer's going to make into that elite club. And you can forget about Big Bleau opening before July 1, 2010<\/a>, at the very least.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Sheldon …<\/strong> results at his new Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> continue to disappoint<\/a>. Adelson's tradition of half-assing his casino openings, dribbling the product onto the market, may finally be catching up with him. Marina Bay Sands<\/strong> should be the acid test of this managerial style. (Personally, I believe it's going to be Adelson's Waterloo, at least to the extent that the casino is expected to drive everything else.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sands Macao: Sheldon's best bet<\/em><\/p>\n

Ironically, it was the comparatively "quick and dirty" Sands Macao<\/strong>, built for considerably less than any other Adelson casino, that has been his biggest hit. The cost-to-date of Sands Bethlehem, by the way, has been revised downward to $675 million (from $743 million), which ought to help the ROI numbers. However, early predictions that Sands Bethelehem was going to siphon business from the Philadelphia<\/strong> area were clearly unrealistic and should have been reported with greater skepticism.<\/p>\n

\"\" Berzon: caped crusader<\/em><\/p>\n

Truth, justice and the American way<\/strong> have one less champion in the Las Vegas area now that Pulitzer Prize<\/strong>-winning Alexandra Berzon<\/strong> has been hired<\/a> by the Wall Street Journal<\/em>. Good for Berzon, better still for the WSJ<\/em>. But who will keep a gimlet eye on OSHA<\/strong> enforcement and the CityCenter<\/strong> clusterfuck now? (And she was moving into gaming coverage, too<\/a> … the prospect of a Berzon\/Liz Benston<\/strong>\/Rick Velotta<\/strong> trifecta would have dwarfed all other casino reportage in this burg.) With the loss of Berzon and editor Drex Heikes<\/strong>, the Las Vegas Su<\/em>n is suddenly in a world of hurt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Oscar gets whacked<\/strong>. Somebody's fantasy, anyway. (Were there any thumbless graffiti taggers in the house? Homeless advocates? Civil libertarians?) Hizzoner was the celeb-victim at the reopening of Marriage Can Be Murder<\/em><\/a> in its new digs at Fitzgeralds<\/strong>. MCBM<\/em> recently left the Four Queens<\/strong> and a good move it was, seeing as the 4Q is at risk of being evicted. Movie veteran Goodman (Casino<\/em>) evidently forgot whatever he learned from The Master (aka<\/em> Martin Scorcese<\/strong>) and didn't hit his "mark."<\/p>\n

As for MCBM<\/em>, a dinner-theatre show, I can't say it compared favorably with the ones we did at Grinnell Community Theater<\/strong>. I was the "juvenile lead" in several shows there and humbly submit that our gung-ho amateur troupe could have done better. Hey, we "killed" with Ten Nights in a Barroom<\/em>. That thing could have run for six months, easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether it's the banks or the subcontractors, somebody's going to take a big screwing at Fontainebleau. That's the nub of a new lawsuit, whereby developer Jeffrey Soffer asserts that Turnberry West Construction (which he also owns) has superior repayment rights … 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":[83,51,4,59,62,11,10,50,95,25,12,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295"}],"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=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}