Wrestling resort called forward thinking for LV

John Wilen

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

The planned World Wrestling Federation hotel-casino is an example of the kind of smaller niche resorts that are vital to Las Vegas' future, says an attorney who works with the WWF.

Mark Risman, a local attorney who helped the WWF buy the Debbie Reynolds hotel-casino out of bankruptcy last year, says Las Vegas can only support so many more mega-resorts themed on foreign cities and locales.

"How many more people are going to come to Las Vegas to see a replica of the Parthenon?" Risman rhetorically asked attendees at an International Association of Business Communicators luncheon Friday. "How many more people are going to come to Las Vegas to see the Eiffel Tower?"

At some point, the megaresort model hits a level of diminishing returns, Risman said. In other words, the second five mega-resorts themed on European cities are not going to attract as many additional people as the first five megaresorts themed on European cities.

Risman says he has been approached by a group interested in building a resort themed on ancient Greece.

In the future, casino developers will have to think "downsizing," and themes that appeal to narrower -- yet passionate -- groups, said Risman. In Risman's words, designers should "think up a new theme (rather) than just another city in the world."

The WWF hotel-casino idea is the perfect model of how to do that, he said. The WWF produces two popular weekly television shows and occasional live events that have a passionate following, said Risman.

"The WWF has two of the top 10 weekly shows on cable TV," said Risman. "They believe that their audience travels ... and that they will make an effort if there's a WWF venue to go there."

Last year, the WWF bought the Debbie Reynolds hotel-casino out of bankruptcy. The WWF plans to destroy the Debbie Reynolds and build a 1,000-room, 35-story wrestling-themed resort casino in its place.

While a thousand rooms is by no means little, it is not as ambitious as the 3,000 to 6,000-room mega-resorts planned or existing on the south Strip. The WWF plan is larger than boutique, but still manageable financially, said Risman. And the theme has such a hard-core following that WWF fans will come again and again to be in a place they feel comfortable, he said.

"They're going to use every design or marketing concept to make people who go into that property feel like they are at a wrestling match," said Risman. "There will be enough to ... attract their fan base on a regular basis."

But wrestling is not the only logical theme for a successful niche hotel-casino, said Risman. Sports-themed resorts, such as Mel Exber's Las Vegas Club, are a natural, he said.

"The way his hotel is themed as a sports memorabilia resort, ... that is the type of property I foresee coming online," said Risman.

Such themes appeal to a domestic audience, and are thus immune to recessions in other parts of the world, he said. And the programming associated with the properties -- be it wrestling or Sunday afternoon football games -- can be used to constantly remind fans of the resort.

Risman is also a fan of the WWF's Convention Center Drive location.

"It's a central location with a lot of traffic and people will want to stay there because of the WWF experience or go there because of the WWF experience," said Risman.