Las Vegas Sun

November 14, 2009

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Columnist Ron Kantowski: Tuning in to newest ESPN Zone

Thursday, June 14, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

After hearing the sales pitch for ESPN Zone, the new eatery and sports bar that will open here next month, I can't decide whether it's going to be the coolest hangout in town for the sports fan or just another place on the Strip to drink an expensive beer.

The country's seventh ESPN Zone will begin playing ball July 20 in the corner of New York, New York formerly occupied by the Motown Cafe. In other words, Marvin Gaye is out and Stuart Scott is in.

Boo-yah!

But here's what I heard through the grapevine -- actually, the three personable publicist-types representing ESPN Zone who visited the Sun offices this week -- about Las Vegas' newest tourist tra -- er, attraction.

Judging from the press kit photographs of the ESPN Zone components, the Screening Room looks an awful lot like the Caesars Palace sports book (minus the cocktail waitresses in the Barbara Eden costumes), while the Studio Grill is pretty much a dead ringer for the All-Star Cafe and the Sports Arena a descendant of the All-American Sport Park (minus the bumper cars). Only one of those three attractions survived the final cut here.

Still, it sounds like ESPN Zone will be a place worth frequenting. At least once.

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