{"id":9814,"date":"2012-10-10T14:42:05","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T22:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=9814"},"modified":"2020-04-08T06:36:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T14:36:53","slug":"hail-bills-trump-slump-back-in-the-fold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/hail-bills-trump-slump-back-in-the-fold\/","title":{"rendered":"Hail, Bill’s!; Trump slump; Back in the fold"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a typically ludicrous Gary Loveman<\/strong> brainstorm, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon<\/strong> is to become — wait for it — Caesars Drai’s<\/strong>. (Yeah, ‘WTF?’ and all that.) \"\"Although you’d have to be either masochistic or insane to loan money to Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> at this point, the company has the nerve to ask for $180 million to fund this bizarre retrofit. Have the structural implications (and cost) of putting tons of water and a nightclub atop a 200-room casino-hotel been seriously contemplated? If they don’t require strapping a giant cement-and-steel truss onto the exterior of Barbary Bill’s, er, Caesars Drai’s, I’ll be pleasantly surprised, although Bill’s existing parking-garage infrastructure takes much of the lunacy off the concept.<\/p>\n

As for the rebranding<\/strong> … what can one say? After deeming Caesars imprimatur to be of too great value to waste on podunk towns like Cleveland<\/strong>, Cincinnati<\/strong>, Philadelphia<\/strong> and Baltimore<\/strong>, they’re busting it out for … this<\/em>?<\/a> Why don’t just you slap the Caesars logo on the Harrah’s Metropolis<\/em> riverboat and make a complete joke of the brand while you’re at it?<\/p>\n

\"\"No matter how much Loveman perfumes this pig, Standard & Poor’s<\/strong> is skeptical. Spritzing on a bit more cologne, the Las Vegas Sun adds, “it is strategically located near Caesars\u2019 under-construction Linq<\/strong> entertainment district<\/em>.” Yes, and the long-vanished Klondike<\/strong> was “strategically located” near Mandalay Bay<\/strong>. So? It’s still an old, small casino in a market where customers — especially high-end ones — have become acclimated to sprawling hotel rooms. Loveman promises to reinvent Barbary Bill’s as a “boutique hotel” (read: jacked-up ADRs) As S&P observes, Caesars is trying to pull a Sam Nazarian<\/strong> “in a highly competitive market with many casino and nightclub operators… redeveloping and turning around an underperforming property … attracting a new customer demographic<\/em>.” Sounds a lot like the agonies Alex Yemenidjian<\/strong> has experienced in trying to reinvent the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> for the 21st century.<\/p>\n

S&P put a “negative”<\/strong> or “speculative” rating on debt for Caesars Drai’s and you’d have to be a speculator to put your money into this. Leaving aside the very serious danger of a Caesars bankruptcy, at his present rate, Loveman would take at least seven or eight years to pay even some of your money back. This isn’t an investment: It’s a slot pull on a machine with no jackpot.<\/p>\n

Speaking of empty hoppers<\/strong>, struggling hotelier Donald Trump<\/strong> is offering extended-stay discounts at select hotels<\/a>, most notably his ill-conceived Trump \"\"International<\/strong> on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>. With a theoretical base price of $129\/night, plus 25% off a four-night stay, you’re looking at $96.75 a night. It’s incredibly safe to say that’s not the price point Das Donald had in mind when he erected his gilded phallus, a lasting monument to his miserable failure to challenge Steve Wynn<\/strong> on the latter’s home turf. (Yes, they had different business models but Trump is obsessed with Wynn, while the latter clearly couldn’t care less.) Anyway, it’s but a matter of time before Hilton Grand Vacations<\/strong>‘ 300-unit share of Trump’s Stump expands to encompass the entire property.<\/p>\n

\"\"Assignment: Springfield<\/strong>. After a brief tenure as CEO of Canadian firm Gateway Casinos<\/strong>, former MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> prexy Lorenzo Creighton<\/strong> is heading back into the lion’s den. MGM Resorts International<\/strong> has re-hired him and handed the veteran casino boss its East Coast<\/strong> portfolio. It’s an empty folder at the moment but Creighton’s task will be to fill it with new casinos in western Massachusetts<\/strong>, in Maryland<\/strong>, perhaps Florida<\/strong>. He’ll even be heading back to the Great White North<\/a>, to sell MGM’s vision of a multi-billion-dollar CityCenter<\/strong> offspring on the Toronto<\/strong> waterfront. Let’s wish him luck.<\/p>\n

It’s also old-home week<\/strong> for an ex-Station Casinos<\/strong> exec, Steve Cavallaro<\/strong>. The former COO returns to his old stomping \"\"grounds now as president of both Station and its semi-outside management firm<\/a>, Fertitta Entertainment LLC<\/strong>. (Not to be confused with Texas<\/strong> cousin and bitter rival Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>‘s Fertitta Entertainment Group<\/strong>.) Cavallaro’s brief will be to oversee the nuts and bolts<\/a> of the company, while ex-president Frank Fertitta III<\/strong> (left<\/em>) does ‘the vision thing’ in his continuing roles as CEO and chairman. As to why such a large and well-established company needs a discrete management entity<\/a>, that’s the kind of move that causes one to look with skepticism upon business strategy within Station HQ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a typically ludicrous Gary Loveman brainstorm, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon is to become — wait for it — Caesars Drai’s. (Yeah, ‘WTF?’ and all that.) Although you’d have to be either masochistic or insane to loan money to … 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":[48,65,28,44,42,36,7,58,22,53,72,112,11,71,95,57,32,9,129,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814"}],"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=9814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26682,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814\/revisions\/26682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}