{"id":560,"date":"2009-01-15T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T18:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/1\/15\/Gang-at-Encore"},"modified":"2009-01-15T10:49:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T18:49:00","slug":"gang-at-encore-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/gang-at-encore-2\/","title":{"rendered":"'Gang' at Encore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday saw an unusual — but altogether pleasant — change in the Vegas Gang<\/em><\/a> routine, as we taped "on location" from a seventh-floor room in Encore<\/strong>, overlooking Echelon<\/strong> and the increasingly ominous Fontainebleau<\/strong> (so disproportionately massive it looms over its neighbors like Godzilla<\/strong> or Gammera<\/strong> over mere mortals). Both David G. Schwartz<\/a> and Jeff Simpson<\/strong> joined us by speakerphone, giving the conversation a certain Charlie's Angels<\/em> vibe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It's Fontainebleau … coming to stomp us all! Run for your lives!<\/em><\/p>\n

Spoilers ahead …<\/strong><\/p>\n

I'm clearly very much in the minority on the likelihood of a Mirage<\/strong> or Bellagio<\/strong> sale. Cash cows they may well be, but there seems to be a strong consensus that their tires are being kicked and serious talks are underway, as well as that The Mirage has become a stodgy property.<\/p>\n

Also that MGM Mirage<\/strong> is a Vegas-Vegas-Vegas-obsessed company and would be willing to sacrifice the Gulf Coast<\/strong> and Detroit<\/strong> markets — the latter of which it utterly dominates — to keep the CityCenter<\/strong> bucks a-flowin'. (And why would MGM bail on Detroit and not on the sickly Illinois<\/strong> market instead? Or Tunica<\/strong>? Or … ? If Alex Yemenidjian<\/strong> would pay $435 million for an Illinois license<\/em>, what might he put down on actual, operational asset?)<\/p>\n

Such a strategy would fly in the face<\/strong>, if not of sense, at least of recent casino industry thinking, whereby you try to maintain strong footholds in the second-tier markets and not put all your chips on Vegas (unless you're Steve Wynn<\/strong> and even he tried it once). It would be like Harrah's Entertainment<\/strong> evacuating Atlantic City<\/strong> to raise money for its stalled Octavius Tower<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And you could knock me over with a feather if MGM sells its Macao<\/strong> demi-concession to partner Pansy Ho<\/strong> or back to her father Stanley<\/strong>, especially after all the hoops MGM had to jump through to get into Macao. Bailing on the world's #1 casino town would be an indicator of extreme desperation bordering on insanity.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get into the provenance of the urban legend that Phil Ruffin<\/strong>'s Treasure Island<\/strong> purchase was just a big-ass\/short-term loan to MGM, with "T.I." serving as collateral — and at 55% interest, no less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday saw an unusual — but altogether pleasant — change in the Vegas Gang routine, as we taped "on location" from a seventh-floor room in Encore, overlooking Echelon and the increasingly ominous Fontainebleau (so disproportionately massive it looms over its … 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":[65,128,28,44,59,7,58,62,11,35,119,61,32,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560"}],"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=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}