Las Vegas bets fireworks will bring New Year’s crowds back

Ken Ritter

Saturday, Dec. 30, 2000 | 9:50 a.m.

With hotel rooms filling Friday, Las Vegas officials were betting a flashy $500,000 fireworks show will rocket the city back into the New Year's Eve spotlight.

"It's looking very good," said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM-Mirage, who said 18,000 rooms in his company's six big Las Vegas hotels were "very near completely full."

At the Fremont Street Experience, officials were touting their designation by USA Today as one of the top 10 places in the nation to dance in the New Year.

Clark County officials completed plans to place dozens of portable toilets near the Strip and Las Vegas police declared themselves ready to deploy 750 officers for crowd control Sunday night.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, watching people filter into his city on a sunny, 61-degree afternoon, predicted 500,000 weekend visitors - almost twice the 263,000 forecast by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The authority estimated 92 percent of the city's hotel rooms would be filled by revelers.

"This year, it's a festive mood," said Goodman, whose opinion of Las Vegas's last New Year's Eve boils down to one word: "Dud."

"I've been to the airport, the airplanes don't have an empty seat," he said. "The roads are jammed. The new year of the real millennium. Everybody's coming to have a good time."

Goodman's city - built around gambling, entertainment and 123,319 hotel rooms - was embarrassed last year by criticism that its Year 2000 celebration fizzled.

Promises of the party of the millennium proved hollow as tourists stayed away, scared off by fears of Y2K and terrorism. Hotels slashed rates for high-priced rooms and concerts by big name entertainers. The event was further marred by the death of a 26-year-old California man who was electrocuted after climbing a light pole and grabbing a power line.

Sure, the six-lane Strip was shut to traffic and elbow-to-elbow crowds trampled the median shrubbery. Statistics later showed that nine in 10 hotel rooms were rented.

But the lasting image was of 251,000 visitors counting the seconds to midnight, turning their eyes skyward, and seeing - nothing.

"This year, they'll get to 5-4-3-2-1 and will have an experience they won't soon forget," said Jan Jones, spokeswoman for Harrah's and the Rio casino-hotels. "Las Vegas will reaffirm itself as the place to be for New Year's."

Tourism officials call the fireworks show the "Big Bang" - as if staking a claim at the center of the tourism universe.

Sunday night's plan - wind permitting - calls for launching fireworks starting at 11:59 p.m. from 11 hotels and two ground sites along the four-mile strip, plus a pyrotechnic display under downtown Fremont Street's five-block-long mall canopy.

Hotel officials on Friday said reservations picked up after the event was announced.

But they also focused on hotel room rates returning to earth after skyrocketing last year in anticipation of the Y2K celebrations.

"This year, rates are more in the norm," said Feldman, who represents the MGM Grand, Mirage, New York-New York, Treasure Island, Bellagio and Golden Nugget.

He said a high-end hotel like the Bellagio, which last year charged $1,500 a night and demanded a three- or four-night stay, was getting $700 this New Year's Eve.

At the 2,555-room Aladdin hotel-casino, which opened this summer, spokesman Lynn Holt could not compare with last New Year's Eve.

"But we've got a sold-out house," Holt said. "We're excited."

Jones, at Harrah's, said room rates of $700 last year with a three-day minimum stay, are $250 this year with a two nights minimum.

"I think last year there was overanticipation," Jones said. "I think Y2K and cost and a lot of other concerns just kept people home."

"Now, the town is full," Jones said. "This year, Las Vegas will shine."

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