{"id":4674,"date":"2010-09-28T15:20:47","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T23:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4674"},"modified":"2021-09-08T06:27:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T14:27:57","slug":"jump-le-sharque-cirque-bombs-in-macao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/jump-le-sharque-cirque-bombs-in-macao\/","title":{"rendered":"Jump le sharque: Cirque bombs in Macao"},"content":{"rendered":"

After sinking a reported $150 million<\/a> into Cirque du Soleil<\/strong>‘s Zaia<\/em>, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> may find itself in possession of a very expensive “loss leader.” According to The Australian<\/em>, “attendances [sic] have been poor and tickets have been heavily discounted.” Cirque doesn’t allow embedding of its online video but if the twee, ultra-PC storyline doesn’t put you off, icky-precious little Zaia herself<\/a> might do it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, just around the corner, Franco Dragone<\/strong> has whipped up a little opus called House of Dancing Water<\/em>, which looks an awful lot like Le Reve<\/em> 4.0 …<\/p>\n

I guess Dragone’s going to keep staging that show until he gets it right and the news that he’s been tinkering with House<\/em> since 2005 (i.e., when Wynn Las Vegas<\/strong> and original-recipe Le Reve<\/em> opened) suggests a common ancestor. City of Dreams<\/strong> co-owner Lawrence Ho<\/strong> argues that Dragone’s show will do better since it draws specifically upon Chinese culture whereas Cirque’s aesthetic is — how do you say? — generique<\/em>. He’d better be right, since House<\/em>‘s budget makes the Zaia<\/em> outlay look like pocket change.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the story, a local academic insists Macao<\/strong> could become a major international tourist destination (even though visitor numbers continue to argue otherwise) and the hard reality of Macao’s low quality of life is on a collision course with the equally hard fact that the local labor pool is not remotely adequate to service the super-ambitious serious of construction projects the Macanese government has OK’d. (When casino push comes to governmental shove, expect Sands, Galaxy Entertainment<\/strong> and realism to ultimately prevail.) Oh, and Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s pride and joy, the Cotai Strip™<\/strong>, is a landfill “chock full of household rubbish.” A casino empire built on a mountain of garbage? There’s a metaphor in there if you feel like digging for it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gentle encouragement?<\/strong> The City of Bethlehem<\/strong> is planning to plough $27 million in old Bethlehem Steel<\/strong> property taxes into infrastructure for Adelson’s Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>. More specifically, it’s to benefit the promised SteelStacks<\/strong> event center, upon which Sands has not turned so much as a spadeful of earth. So you might characterize the city’s decision as a nudge in Adelson’s ribs<\/a>. The company has clearly not allayed fears that it will ultimately flip the unfinished, underperforming resort — not least because of Sands’ public equivocations on its future in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

New direction in NOLA<\/strong>. It’s not a cockamamie idea\u00a0to market Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> as a national tourist destination but it’s a stretch nevertheless. Pushing it as an alternative to Atlantic City<\/strong> or Las Vegas<\/strong> ignores the fact that both of those cities have a critical mass of casinos that New Orleans<\/strong> can’t match. So does Biloxi<\/strong>, for that matter. Ergo, Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> pink-slipped Harrah’s New Orleans Casino & Hotel<\/strong> General Manager Jim Hoskins<\/strong> and replaced him with Dan Real<\/strong>, who vows to maintain more realistic ambitions. The main prongs of his new strategy are twofold: to restrict nationwide marketing to holiday periods, and to upgrade the quality and venue of entertainment being offered at Harrah’s N.O.<\/p>\n

Musical chairs<\/strong>. The prospect of co-owning and running nine casinos was too great a prize for Lorenzo Creighton<\/strong> to resist, leading him to quit MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> in favor of Canadian firm Gateway Casinos<\/strong>. MGM HQ in Vegas is dispatching marketing exec Steve Zanella<\/strong> to Motown to assume Creighton’s portfolio<\/a>. S&G<\/em> congratulates both men.<\/p>\n

Also on the move<\/strong> is a former analyst for J.P. Morgan<\/strong>, Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>. He’s landed at Wells Fargo<\/strong> and initiated coverage on a baker’s dozen of gaming stocks. First out of the gate is Melco Crown Entertainment<\/strong>, which Santarelli currently likes for its “balanced risk[-]reward scenario” although he deems its 2011-12 cash flow projections “aggressive.” He takes a similar view of Melco’s pursuit of VIP play, and deems Sands and Wynn Resorts<\/strong> more stable long-term performers — a verdict that will come as a surprise to none.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After sinking a reported $150 million into Cirque du Soleil‘s Zaia, Las Vegas Sands may find itself in possession of a very expensive “loss leader.” According to The Australian, “attendances [sic] have been poor and tickets have been heavily discounted.” … 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":[23,80,28,44,14,4,22,96,94,84,62,53,93,11,35,95,12,32,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674"}],"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=4674"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30033,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions\/30033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}