{"id":792,"date":"2009-02-19T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T01:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/2\/19\/How-desperate-is-Scott-Butera"},"modified":"2009-02-19T17:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-20T01:08:00","slug":"how-desperate-is-scott-butera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/how-desperate-is-scott-butera\/","title":{"rendered":"How desperate is Scott Butera?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps sensing that the Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> is slipping irretrievably from his grasp, Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Scott Butera<\/strong> has taken his case to the media — seeking an audience<\/a> with the editorial board of The Press of Atlantic City<\/em>, no less. Butera has a persuasive manner, as you'll hear in the attached audio excerpts. Repositioning the Trop as a smoke-free property seems a bit out there but it has the virtue of novelty, so let's give it the benefit of the doubt. (There is a serious disconnect, though, between what Butera thinks the Trop to be worth and what the market is telling him.)<\/p>\n

Butera's real sales job is going to be with the hard-to-convince New Jersey Casino Control Commission<\/strong>, of course … a task not made any easier when TropEnt sole shareholder William J. Yung III<\/strong> popped up at a New Jersey Supreme Court<\/strong> hearing on the Trop's fate, about as welcome a sight as Banquo's Ghost. Short of drawing and quartering Yung in front of the assembled NJCCC, I'm not sure what Butera can do that will guarantee him a fair hearing.<\/p>\n

He might have one ace left to play<\/strong> by throwing his support to Carl Icahn<\/strong>'s mooted stalking-horse bid<\/a>. Even if Icahn doesn't really want the Trop, the mere possibility that he could throw all or most of $1.4 billion in secured debt onto the table should force rival bidder Cordish Co<\/strong>. to either pony up some real money (instead of incessantly haggling) or drop out. Of course, Butera needs Icahn more than Icahn needs him; the old corporate raider could always rustle up Richard Brown<\/strong> and the rest of the old ACEP<\/strong> band and run the Trop himself.<\/p>\n

Still no word<\/strong> on whether Colony Capital<\/strong> will be run out of Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> or not. The NJCCC is playing this close to the vest<\/a>. From a logical standpoint, Colony's argument that Column Financial<\/strong> can't be allowed to take over because the latter doesn't have a gaming license (and never mind that Colony is three months in arrears on its mortgage) is silly. It's like saying your banker can't repossess your car because he doesn't have a driver's license.<\/p>\n

However, the law is something else again and Colony appears to be on firm ground there unless Column can make the case for a state-run trusteeship. Not that such an arrangement worked out entirely well in the case of the Trop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps sensing that the Tropicana Atlantic City is slipping irretrievably from his grasp, Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera has taken his case to the media — seeking an audience with the editorial board of The Press of Atlantic City, no … 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":[23,82,3,53,25,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792"}],"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=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}