A MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR EXPLOSION; MIRAGE CHANGED FACE, FORTUNES OF LAS VEGAS.Byline: Robert Macy Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. On a crisp November morning 10 years ago, Steve Wynn Steve Wynn is the name of a:
Even Wynn, who counts Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney among his heroes, couldn't have imagined how his bold $630 million venture would change the face, fortunes and future of Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. . The hotel, which marked its 10th anniversary Monday, is seen as the genesis for the new Las Vegas - a multibillion-dollar explosion of megaresorts and a doubling of visitor volume, hotel rooms and gambling revenues. ``It caused Las Vegas to go in the right direction, to provide a deeper, richer experience for the visitor,'' Wynn, chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc., said Monday. Jason Ader, a casino analyst for Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , said the Mirage was ``one of the key engines responsible for the wave of growth Las Vegas has experienced the past 10 years.'' ``The Mirage has created the reason for people all over the world to come to Las Vegas,'' Ader said. When the 3,044-room, 29-story hotel opened Nov. 22, 1989, skeptics predicted it would not be able to generate the $1 million a day needed to meet its debt service and operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . Wynn made light of the skepticism on opening day, noting the $1 million daily nut and boasting ``anything above that we get to keep.'' The critics were proved wrong. The first year the resort generated revenues of $720.5 million, averaging nearly $2 million daily. Wynn predicted at the time the success of the Mirage would prove Las Vegas and its casinos were a safe bet for Wall Street and the investment community. The city's early casinos were built with mob money, later through the scandal-plagued Teamsters Teamsters large, powerful union of U. S. truckers. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2703] See : Labor Pension Fund. ``In the end, that was the most important thing,'' Wynn said. ``The Mirage spent $650 million and no one had spent over $150 million up to that point. The Mirage would show that Las Vegas was a safe place to invest that kind of money. No one had invested on that scale before.'' Ader said Wynn surprised Wall Street by exceeding the $1 million a day. ``They figured he would never get the $1 million a day in revenue needed to make the economic model work,'' Ader said. ``Sure enough, he did it. Nobody ever doubted Steve Wynn again.'' As for the impact on Las Vegas, the visitor volume has jumped from 18.1 million in 1989 to a projected 32.3 million this year. Those visitors are expected to pump $24.6 billion into the Las Vegas economy in 1999, more than double the $11.9 billion in 1989. Mirage Resorts Inc. has developed two other megaresorts, Treasure Island Treasure Island search for buried treasure ignited by discovery of ancient map. [Br. Lit.: Treasure Island] See : Treasure and Bellagio, and is a partner in another, Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (môNtā` kärlō`), town (1982 pop. 13,150), principality of Monaco, on the Mediterranean Sea and the French Riviera. . It also owns the Golden Nugget hotel-casinos in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev., and the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss. Other megaresorts that followed Mirage include the Excalibur, MGM MGM in full Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. U.S. corporation and film studio. It was formed when the film distributor Marcus Loew, who bought Metro Pictures in 1920, merged it with the Goldwyn production company in 1924 and with Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1925. Grand, Luxor, New York-New York, Rio, Stratosphere, Mandalay Bay, the Venetian and Paris. The building boom has propelled the Las Vegas metropolitan area to the fastest-growing in America, with the county's population jumping from 708,750 in 1989 to 1,337,400 today. Ader believes the Mirage set a pattern for new casino development not only in Las Vegas, but worldwide. ``I think every casino that has been built since then has taken a little bit of the Mirage, whether it be the boats or native American Indian casinos,'' Ader said. ``You see a little of the Mirage in every casino designed since then.'' Manny Manny may refer to: In nobility:
``The Mirage really set the standard for resort properties in the '90s,'' Cortez said. ``If you were going to be a player in Las Vegas, you were going to have to compete with the Mirage. And you can see what happened.'' The hotel was the first new one built in Las Vegas in 16 years. ``In the late 1980s, we had a period of time where tourism was kind of flattening out,'' Cortez recalled. ``After the Mirage was built, tourism got rolling again. It just kind of jump-started everything.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: A visitor, Paul Bertrand, snaps a photo of the fountain outside the Mirage in Las Vegas. Lori Cain/Associated Press |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion