Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleMoney management giant has faith in MGM Mirage
T. Rowe Price has bet $277 million on casino company’s future
Fireworks explode over the Aria hotel-casino during the official opening Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. Aria is the centerpiece of the $8.5 billion CityCenter project, which is a partnership between MGM Mirage and Dubai World.
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Aria opens its doors to the public
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
del.icio.usCityCenter's Aria has opened its doors to the public. Fireworks exploded over the centerpiece of the $8.5 billion CityCenter project, and people eagerly awaited to be the first inside Aria, which is a partnership between MGM Mirage and Dubai World.
Although short sellers were betting on the demise of MGM Mirage last year, portfolio manager Joseph Fath of T. Rowe Price was buying shares of Nevada’s largest casino company.
The Baltimore-based money management giant — the largest outside shareholder of MGM Mirage, with 7 percent of the company’s stock — has found itself increasingly alone in thinking things can only get better for the gaming giant.
Fath’s optimism for MGM Mirage is mainly based on macroeconomic trends, such as recent growth in the gross domestic product, rather than any grand company strategy. Lately, he has been poring over such mind-numbing statistics as retail inventories and manufacturing shipments — data that seem far removed from the glitz and salesmanship of the Strip.
In a phone interview, Fath said he thinks the figures serve as signals of business demand and an eventual indicator of whether Joe and Jane Pittsburgh — or their counterparts in, say, China — will splurge in Las Vegas.
“I feel better than I ever have this year,” Fath said with an audible sigh of relief that sounded out of place on the other end of the phone line, in the nation’s foreclosure capital.
“Things are absolutely better than they were six months ago. Job losses are slowing and home foreclosures are starting to clear. This will be a delayed recovery. But it’s a question of how fast things pick up and what that looks like.”
Some have made similar comments. But what sets Fath apart from the many skeptics who fear for MGM Mirage and Las Vegas tourism in general is his continued belief in a tenet of American culture: “This is a consumption nation. As people’s balance sheets get better, they will spend more.”
This view of business cycles was the conventional wisdom until this recession, when people pulled back on spending to an extent not seen since the Great Depression. This led some to predict the downturn would change the nation’s spending habits for a long time to come.
In Fath’s opinion, the view that people will continue to spend less even as the economy improves is an understandable, although fallible, herd mentality. “It’s easy to be negative, just like it was easy to be positive when times were good,” he said.
Fath’s outlook is, of course, one man’s opinion — although one backed by a $277 million bet on MGM Mirage.
Despite the size of that investment, he is no gaming industry cheerleader.
Even as his company benefited from the leveraged buyouts of Harrah’s Entertainment and Station Casinos, companies taken private with debt-financed purchases of stock at high prices, Fath thought the deals were too risky. Piling billions in debt onto otherwise healthy companies, even at cheap interest rates, made them vulnerable to economic whims.
Station has filed for bankruptcy protection, while Harrah’s has so far avoided bankruptcy by negotiating alternative deals with lenders.
Sheldon Adelson
Fath’s bankruptcy prediction for Las Vegas Sands has not yet been proven correct. He sold his stake in the company in 2008, unwilling to bet that majority owner Sheldon Adelson would continue to bail out his company.
Instead, Las Vegas Sands has chipped away at its debt by leveraging its lucrative casinos in Macau. In the race for wealth during the credit boom, Sands was the biggest gambler of all, developing multiple resorts in Macau before getting the financing necessary to finish them.
MGM Mirage made the same mistake with CityCenter, although not on so grand a scale, as it was mostly financed with its own cash and that of business partner Dubai World.
On the subject of CityCenter, which many analysts think will hurt Las Vegas more than it will help, Fath has mixed emotions.
CityCenter made more sense at $4 billion, when tourism was booming and all indications were that people were eager to buy condos on the Strip, a self-financing strategy that helped offset some of the sticker shock. As the construction budget soared, Fath and other financial minds privately expressed alarm.
CityCenter wasn’t a great investment at $6 billion and certainly not at $8.5 billion, he says. “As the (budget) started to creep up, I got more and more nervous. I should have rung the alarm bell sooner than I did.”
But investors are perpetually betting on the future, making the past moot. MGM Mirage had to finish what it started. And Fath, now that the economy appears to be bottoming, is hopeful for CityCenter’s future.
Although the lackluster openings of Palazzo and Encore on the Strip involved resorts that were more like hotel expansions than unique attractions, CityCenter is “clearly different” from the competition, Fath said.
Given lowered financial expectations for CityCenter, the property, he said, only has to generate a modest profit for MGM Mirage stock to benefit. CityCenter will hurt the lowest-performing and least competitive properties, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the Strip or MGM Mirage, which owns several of the Strip’s more profitable resorts, he added.
Kirk Kerkorian
Thus, Fath willingly bought additional MGM Mirage stock at $7 a share in May, when the company raised $1 billion in stock and $1.5 billion in bonds to shore up its debts. (At that price, MGM Mirage’s largest shareholder Kirk Kerkorian also pulled out the checkbook, investing $100 million for a now-diluted stake of 39 percent.) MGM Mirage trades at more than $9 per share, 44 percent under its 52-week high but rebounding from a low of $1.81 in March, when bankruptcy appeared imminent.
MGM Mirage will seek to refinance its heavy debt load, while likely taking cash out of CityCenter in exchange for debt on the mostly equity-financed project, Fath said. “There’s still heavy lifting to do, but the nasty stuff is done.”
This year will be bumpy, he warns, with business likely to grow in the second half of the year and into next year. “The average Joe needs to feel better about things and for that to happen, things like employment and housing prices need to pick up.”
And yet, many Strip resorts, especially those owned by MGM Mirage, have been able to maintain high occupancy rates by offering unprecedented deals. Thirty-five million visitors flocked to Las Vegas this year in a crummy economy.
“The demand is there. They need to book business at higher rates. But a lot of operators are scared to raise rates,” Fath said.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- At UNLV basketball games, they call him Tiny, and that big kid can dance
- Rise and fall of the Charity Queen: How Kathleen Vermillion gained fame
- Celebrity preview: JWoww, Sean Kingston, Ice-T and Coco, Nelly
- Sandoval’s $400,000 credit card payment reveals campaign finance flaw
- Henderson mayor ‘regrets’ police-inflicted pain suffered by diabetic after traffic stop
- Star Surveillance: Vince Neil turns 51, Criss Angel, Angel Porrino, ‘Stripped’
- Critics call foreclosure settlement ‘a slap in face’
- Judge sets hearing for teacher in DUI-related accident
- Creativity, strong support system make for thriving city
- An early-state problem; and teachers union doesn’t relent
Blogs
The Kats Report
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped' TV show: "I'll give it an 8'
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (1 Comment)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Kats Report
A sophisticated look at line-moving and dog-show handicapping from Wynn's Johnny Avello
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
"Money management giant has faith in MGM Mirage"
too bad there isn't separation of church and business...
this guy made have bought 200 mio in shares but maybe he's shortening for 1 billion at the same time.....
I stay away from shortening, less fat
This is just another spin on the same story. Vegas is bankrupt no matter how many ways they want to try and say that things are turning around. Nothing will turn around until you get that national unemployment rate back to no more than six percent. Also the casino companies MUST give better value.
That wouldn't make sense BorisR.
I think we all should be more optimistic, because the worst is over and this will be a good year for Vegas.
What I always admired most at America, was their optimism. So please guys, get it back!
jsvegas :
Optimism doesn't fill the help wanted pages, and "Sold" signs on forclosed homes and fill the empty half built shopping malls..The only thing that will do that expendable money in people's pockets from a good job (or any job for that matter). This problem is not going to solved for many years due to the mistakes made in this country like the NAFTA which sent American jobs across all borders. Also the fact that we don't manufacture hardly anything here anymore. Gambling is an insolvent industry which produces nothing, however somehow was able to borrow more money than our crummy Auto industry, which along with their criminal counterparts in the oil industry managed a treasonous conspiracy to loot the American public with crappy gas guzzling automobiles and over priced petroleum to run them. They succeeded along with the criminals in the real estate industry to destroy the American economy, as well as a good portion of the world economy..
jsvegas, I'm with you!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Manufactur...
Enviro,
Certainly pessimism wont accomplish anything either. I love it when people blame NAFTA and foreign competition for a bad economy. That's the problem with the US today, fearful of competition, fearful of capitalism. Why would anyone in business want to pay 78.00 a hour in wages and benefits, when someone will do the same job, if not better for 12.00? You would be no different if you owned a business. Business owners don't owe employees a job, they don't owe health & welfare, they owe their workers a paycheck at the end of a pay period. You say that gambling produces nothing, then how do explain the hundreds of billions of dollars spent developing Las Vegas? You say you have been here since 59', Las Vegas was a spot in the desert in 59', nothing more. Investment dollars from those "carpetbaggers" you mentioned, developed Las Vegas into one of the tourism capitals of the world. Had it not been for them, you'd still be shoveling horse manure and wearing sun screen.
Nico777 :
Why don't you take a look at other developing countries who have quietly over the years studied and copied the American business structure and industrial operations, however they resisted the proper treatment of their workers enriching the centralized governmental core, enabling them to out produce us with a quality product made by the sweat and abuse of their workers. The greedy US corporate leaders saw their chance to capitalize on this process and their counterparts in Washington made it possible while lining their own pockets in the process. Back here in Vegas, Gambling has only produced jobs and an artificially inflated economy which has come crashing down around us because they have nothing to dig themselves out of the hole with except hopes that people will start spending their money and returning for services rendered..Not a healthy situation..
I have no doubt that MGM-Mirage corp will continue to do well since Dubai World and others helped them to get the financing secured and construction completed on City Center. But that right there is the thing. They're going to do well because they've diversified their portfolios as well as their gaming stakes in other states. You've got Michiagan and Mississippi that they own outright. And still there are the untold partnerships with Indian Casinos, etc. And that's just looking at the Gaming Side of MGM. They still are partnering with Dubai World on non-gaming properties in the Middle East as an example.
No doubt that MGM, and others like Harrah's will eventually pull through all this. They have diversified themselves quite a bit. And that's a smart thing. But while their corporations as a whole are poised to do well and will survive, their Las Vegas properties are still going to take a hit.
So while the companies are going to recover in a couple of years, the Las Vegas Valley isn't going to be quite so lucky. I don't blame them though. I mean the only reason that so many Gaming Corporations got their start here is simply because Nevada had legalized gambling. Had other states with far more gentler climates and friendlier locations have legalized gambling, you can be that these same corporations would have been formed elsewhere, and Las Vegas would have remained nothing more than a sleepy town.
Perhaps Las Vegas' usefulness for gaming is coming to a close? Granted the only reasons that they stay here is because of a smaller, less volatile population that's not as likely to rebel against the big casinos, let alone the fact they've already invested so much money in these hotels that they need their revenue to at least pay the loans on them off. We've gentrified and sanitized Vegas so much that it bears no resemblance to what it once was, and what it once was is what attracted so many people here. But why bother any more? Sure it will lure *some* people, but not the repeat level of visitors we've had in the past.
I think that Las Vegas' glory days are far behind it, and unless the gaming giants start building the "Blue-Collar" casinos in Vegas again that they're helping put onto the Indian Reservations, they're going to destroy this city.
EnvironP hit the nail on the head when he mentioned casino's giving better value.
The vacancy rate currently being experienced by the casinos should be a clue to management that changes are urgently needed. Unfortunately, we've just gone through what seems like a decade of Wynn wannabe's. We are now stuck with casinos and hotels that have financially structured themselves to cater to those in the upper financial stratus.
Locals and middle America are no longer courted, and the death of places like City Center will be prolonged and painful to watch, but are almost guaranteed.
I'm not normally a pessimist, but I think 2010 will prove to be a tough year for our city.
Enviro,
I agree that some other countries have let corporations abuse their workers. Most of the problems with the economic structure in the US, is workers have forgotten to be thankful for employment, they feel as though through employment, they are deserving or owed a life long commitment from the employer. I agree that the bubble that has burst was a long time coming, but as a country, the US population has long been a spender and not a saver. The majority of US citizens have long lived above their means, hence creating a house of cards economy. I was brought up with the understanding that if I didn't have the cash to buy something, I didn't need it. The false economy started when Nixon took the US off the gold standard. No accountability from Govt=No accountability from the constituents. Yes?
environ, I hope you weren't among those whose incomes couldn't support their $500k home purchase. While it's true some questionable ethics on the part of mortgage brokers enables those purchases, homeowners really only have themselves to blame for over reaching into something that was beyond their means. That is a lot of what created the financial crisis we have had to endure, and not just here in Vegas.
You are wrong to think it was a conspiracy on the part of gov't and big business to move some of our labor market overseas. It's simple supply and demand. The upside is that eventually our economic engine will make the neecessary adjustments to keep our unemplyment at normal levels, effectively replcing jobs that are now done overseas with new ones here.
No matter how hard to try and shoot us down, we still have the largest economy in the world...the best of everything.
Nico777 & Cribster :
Absolutely being off the gold standard has diluted the value of our currency, and absolutely people living above and beyond their financial means drowning in debt. contributed heavily to the meltdown. But stop and consider this for a moment, WW2 started and pulled the US out of the Great depression why? because we had unlimited resources, manufacturing, and a population with the will to work hard to beat the Axis powers. Post WW2 those manufacturing jobs provided quality employment opportunities for Americans creating the middle class, thus providing the rest of the world with a great need for what we had to offer. This is what built this post war country into a major super power. Fast forward if you will to today. China and India and the post communist eastern block developing countries are doing the same thing and catching up to us alarmingly fast. It will just be a matter of time before someone takes a shot at us. We need to protect our economy, produce again and keep jobs plentiful and fruitful to stand up to the rest of the world.
Visiting CC the other day, I was completely disappointed. Just a bunch of overpriced condos and incredibly expensive stores. A nice casino, sure, but that's it? What were they thinking?
CC is an 8.5 BILLION dollar disaster that will be in BK soon. Bet on it.
Glad that Fath is not managing my money.
I may not be the right one to say anything about the Las Vegas situation but, as a frequent visitor I have seen a big change from wanting the $200.00 a day guy and his family to the more elite among us. The guy who can afford to gamble whale money will almost always be ok. But a guy like me that has to scrape the bottom to get comp rooms,cheap air fare in another state , try to rent a car and pay nearly $100.00 in fees to rent it so that I can visit Red Rock Canton and Valley of Fire because I can't afford to sit at a table or slot for the entire week is a shame. I found out about those places because of a service employee at a casino. No matter who is to blame we all need to "work" toward the recovery and not allow the parties to seperate us further.
Cautious optimisim, did someone say "fath" or "faith"?
Visted CityCenter last week. Yup-O. Nice little traffic light right there in the center of the Center for us to stop and do a courtesy to the towering steel and glass monuments above. Real, genuine city feel. A success on that attemplt. City-like streets, looks like they could've put parking meters along it to help recoup their costs. Meters'd enhance the steel-cold feel of the place, too.
Tricky parking lot entrance. Needs two guys standing there so you don't crash into the wall.
Every space has a handicap sized striped off unloading zone adjoining it, yet way too few actual handicap designated parking slots.
Why the luxurious squandaring of space? Does everyone drive a double wide Hummer?
Enjoyed the long, complicated walk to the casino. Got my pulse rate up a few.
Where were all the wealthy lounge cusomers that day? The posh lounge had only a couple of hand-wringing employees standing around looking mournful.
Sorry, but the casino didn't do it for me. I don't dark, endless caverns.
And walking past the CC complex means going up and down two flights of stairs or jumping into elevators. So much for foot traffic customers, eh?
I wish you'd done it with me in mind. I like walking the Strip, not jumping up and down stairways like Superman looking for a phone booth.
The rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated. Don't bet on las vegas going out of business anytime soon! Was quite a busy new year, and the strip is still busy several days later. No matter how bad the business decisions of these idiot "executives" is, the gaming is so strong that it still overcomes all the stupid mistakes and overbuilding of management. Look for cheap room rates and slow weekdays for a couple years and busy weekends and holidays. Eventually vegas always comes around. Seen this many times over the years! Look for mgm and byd to be much higher over the long haul.
marv is right about his observations on las vegas---everyone is chasing the high middle class and high end play and not enough places really "take care" of the lower end of the spectrum. Even at local oriented properties comps are way way too tight for most of us smaller players. Hope byd doesn't get the stations casinos because they are super tight with comps and employee pay!
don't kid yourselves--these joints are still making tons of money--just not as much as before--still 35 million suckers coming through the door this year--obviously many of the posters are not in the trenches watching all the cash--still tons of cash being "created". With the value of the dollar so low, we are now the cheap destination for foreign tourist--vegas is a real bargain for the Chinese and others.
I'd say throwing in for a few hundred shares is a better bet than you can find inside the actual casino. I've made more money on gaming stocks over the years (Shuffle Master, Station Casinos, IGT) than I have in the casinos. Just another place to gamble. No immediate results, but the payout can be great for those who wait. I love bottom fishing in a bad market. MAy be time to call my broker.
MGM-M will do just fine and so will Vegas. They've got great properties with good numbers of visitors. I just it all just doesn't end up in the hands of Chinese.
I spent some time at the Bellagio with some of my Wall Street friends a while back. It was an eye-opening experience.
Finding a stock analyst with a "feel" for gaming is difficult. The personality attributes are mutually exclusive. What would really impress me is a stock analyst who say, oh I don't know, spent 3 months a year as an undercover guest in these properties.
I can tell you no one who spends much "upper middle class" time in Vegas is buying any MGM-Mirage stock, unless they need some capital losses.
Let me tell you why. The most profitable cross-sections of business in Vegas are the highest end and the lowest end. Harrahs does well by getting mass numbers of low rollers into their grind joints while not spending a dime on upkeep. Throw a couple chicken wings on the buffet and Grandma Diamond is happy to drop her couple hundo every few weeks.
On the other end of the spectrum we have the bigger players who will normally go with a Wynn, Palazzo, Encore....etc. Of course Harrah's throws their Caesars and Paris at those people but only the old timers from the pre-Harrah's acquisition days put up with those crap properties and fossilized cocktail servers and dealers. Then you've got MGM-Mirage with Bellagio which they have done as well as could be expected maintaining a gradual decline as it got further from Wynn's influence and fell into the hands of a company without the expertise to run 5-star resorts. So I can see MGM-Mirage's theory in going all out with CityCenter to regain some of the market share stolen from Bellagio by Wynncore and VenPalazzo. But this is their biggest failure yet!
First, they went wrong on the concept. Its too modern and not luxurious enough. Second, they made every possible mistake imaginable in engineering the property for actual OPERATION. Yes is is visually stunning, but no one wants to sit on cold metal while waiting 2 1/2 hrs to check-in after waiting 45 min for Valet service, after driving around 5 laps trying to figure out how to get in and bouncing their Mercedes off a couple walls. The casino is too dark. The spa is too basic. The restaurants serve uninspired food. But the worst sin of all? They interviewed over 100,000 applicants and THIS IS WHAT THEY HIRED??!?
With the CityCenter disaster in full bloom MGM-Mirage has stuck inself in a no-mans land of competing against both cheaper properties and more luxurious properties. They might have a chance to pull that off in a better economy OR if they had even reasonably decent service. But they don't, so they won't.
Vegas WILL DO JUST FINE. MGM-Mirage shoulda stuck with 3-star props like NYNY or MGM Grand which is what they do best. They are on life support now, and they are going to get crushed by the competition going forward.
Nico777
When you say americans are fearful of competion and you think it is funny people blame NAFTA on the economic recession.You must be blind I saw this happening about 5 years before it happened.
My goodness whem you start losing jobs to foriegn countries and our own America industry is moving out what do you exspect.Fuel prices sent us into the recession sooner than expected because disposable income was eaten up by the doubling to trippling of fuel but on way or the other we were headed towards this recession because this country was continualy losing jobs to over the boarder and overseas production.NAFTA hurt this country alot.As fars as affraidof compitetion "not" just people know it was a huge mistake to pass NAFTA into law because we quit taking care of our own.You must keep as much money in this country as you can to keep this country going on a possitive track.
So Nico777 you will one day realize NAFTA just did not hurt jobs but when the jobs moved out that was income and social security taxes lost and it has effected everything
Agreed, Rodtig. People don't realize when Corporate America sent jobs overseas, as a business decision to lower wages and improve profit for Corporate America, they took that money out of the pockets of the American worker, AKA the American consumer. Now they wonder how to dig themselves out of the recession? Middle America has been decimated by a lowered standard of living, thanx to Corporate America and their never ending quest to fill the pockets of upper management.
Since Reagan, except for a stronger FASB, we have seen a huge rise in Congress and Corporate American finnagling regulations (more, less, and changes), the tax code, monetary policy and trade agreeements to benefit a new corporate elite, and a new financial industry jobs growth to support the inequities which have resulted in (1) suppressing wages plus wage losses to inflation, and (2) a majority of the wealth and savings for re-investment going to the top of American society.
This has also effected public policy in Washington DC, as money changed the game. The 2008 election was the first throwback toward working towards a more equitable playing field for American labor, and thus, ultimately, American businesses.
And then we have uneducated people speaking of socialism and communism, and taking their country from them. Pretty funny, if we weren't talking about the country and serious, long-term fundamentals.
Middle and rural America have become cheap places to live or retire with no corporate infrastructure the past 20-25 years, except now they increasingly have the Internet and the Indian tribes are bringing a good gaming-entertainment product to some of those areas.
And Vegas expects Americans to fly to Vegas and support one million to two million dollar hotel rooms having major leverage when they have no life savings and about 40 percent (is that what I heard?) of American homeowners are under water?
I don't think so. Turnabout is fair play.
Nevada is going to be super reliant on corporations to choose to bring conventions to Vegas willing to pay more revpar with help from federal government subsidies (where are the simpletons calling everyone else socialists who want the goverment out of their lives and the marketplace in that regard?), and hope to create enough buzz that Middle America is still paying attention.
As to the article, maybe the stock goes up into the teens, maybe not. Surely asking someone who has made a professional decision to invest other's money into the stock is skewered to the upper range. Now ask someone who is shorting the stock and ask them why also.
Corperations and their executives have over the past 20 years have slowly destroyed the American Society of buisness.
It would be interesting to see a report that covered the past 20 years of how many corperatins have closed manufacturing or down sized manufacturing here in the United States opting to send production across our boarders and overseas.The amount of dollars saved for production and the decrease in margins on the products once sent overseas.
Here is a Question for NAFTA supporters.
Did the shift in production to overseas lower the cost of the product to the American consumer or did the corperations pocket the profits and choke out the little guy/buisness owner?
I will assure you that the the savings the corperations gained did not reflect into the American consumer.
NAFTA was a double edged sword to the American public.What I do not seem to understand is we also know why the corperations sent alot of their production overseas and did not respond accordingly to help prevent this from happening.
Now some of you may not agree with my opinion but the up comming statement is based on several evaluated thoughts.
1.To keep the jobs here in the U.S. we needed to keep our wages for production at a modest increase and not at an constant push for wage increase through Labor Unions.
2.The same worker that supported their Unions in pushing on a continous wage increase is the same worker who without a job or their children are without work because that job has moved overseas.
Now understand that these Unions base their dues on a percentage of the income as they increased the wages they increased their Union dues.
My question to the Union worker who is out of work is the Union paying your bills today or are the paying your unemployed childs bills.I doubt this very seriously.
Do not get me wrong! I believe in a fair wage for a job based on realist cost of living increases.
Here is my reasoning I have a friend who that worked for General Motors in the assembly line for 10 years.He had a terrific wage and good benifits and he was living very modestly.Now when he was laid off he recieved maximum uneployment benifits which was at no comparison to his Union Set wage of $45.00 per hour.
He saved alot during this 10 year stent and was glad he did.After he realized that his savings was running out and he wasn't getting anymore work through the Union.He decided to apply at a foreign owned plant here in the U.S. and his experience got him the job,not the Union.He started the job with a $26.00 per hour wage with good benifits.
This was a considerable larger amount higher than his unemployment he was recieving and has began to stablize his financial situation and is now working towards getting his savings back in place.Note this job is the exact same type of work he was doing for GM.He is glad to be working.
True value can be found in Las Vegas, still. And I am refering to REAL VALUE, not stuff like a big water fountain or some spectacular light show for entertainment. The real values are the good videopoker machines that give you more gamble for your money, and the good dining specials. This is the good news.
The bad part of the news is that these values cannot be found on the Strip anymore. Well, it's a long time since there were any of these specials on Las Vegas Boulevard. Even if you pay 150 usd for a room and they give you a 75 usd food credit, what good is that food credit if the restaurants are totally overpriced and breakfast for 2 costs 35 dollars plus tips?
To all Vegas Strip visitors: You must accept a "huge inflation" on the Strip or stay away from the Strip.
I personally don't think that CityCenter will survive.The Casino will not generate enough funds and the condos will not be sold until the price is so low that everybody can afford one. The debt load is so extreme that I have serious concern about MGM Mirage now. Obviously, the stockmarket is much more optimistic, perhaps they're still hoping that Macau can make up for the mess forever.
Lately I noticed that the good old Skyline Casino on Boulder Highway is still alive and has specials like 20 years ago. Friendly stuff, from what I heard, loyal customers, good videopoker, and convenient parking. O yeah, that's what the people want. And no 25 minutes walk from your parking lot till you hit a tight slotmachine.
Good luck, CityCenter
Oh, and this here's just in from the press: In fact, my most recent comment needs some adjustment: There is some value to be found on the Strip, still. Very little value, but something the kind reader may find intereting:
Loose money can be found at certain hours of the day in some poker rooms on Las Vegas Boulevard. Watch for the happy and drinking players (tourists?) but stay away from the silent people , wearing sunglasses and drinking nothing but bottles of water or coffee black. The latters have nothing to give away but want your money, instead. The happy players (tourists?) are usually the ones that make the bad calls and therefore give you a little extra-edge.
Even here, there's a flip side of the coin: In Las Vegas, today, there are a lot of very good poker players who believe that it's an easy picking and the number of these players is usually too high to make a formerly profitable game actually a good one. Therefore, select your game and meanwhile enjoy the water fountain and light shows being offered for free. Or have a few drinks at the bar with the friendly lady eyeing you (or your wallet,hehe). Might save you a lot of pain and give you more value for your time while being in Las Vegas.
Rule No 1: Good play can start only after bad play has stopped. Play your cards right.
From Switzerland
Wow, so many negative locals, come to Chicago for awhile and feel some real depression, you guys have it made if you just get off the negative kick. If you decide to take a walk tonight you can, its 10 degrees here, and snow to make it colder. No walking for me......our mayor is in with every bad guy in the city...we actually thought we had a chance for the Olympics...and then that Governor we had...what a joke... no casinos I could walk through...Chicago has not changed in 20 years...
On the positive, the Blackhawks are doing well...I have a job...the packers lost in the play-offs...I can make snowballs and you can't...
So I guess there goods and bad on every city...let's just hear some goods every once in awhile. I may be a Las Vegas resident sometime this year and can't wait for that warm walk.
jsvegas --
You're way off base. Optimism does create jobs. Spoken like a typically uniformed employee who doesn't really do his homework. As a business owner because I lost my job to what was supposed to be a fatal illness over 19 years ago, so I started my own business and subsequently my own businesses plural -- there was no settlement. I did it on my own with my own talents and skills. What are you waiting around for -some perfect scenario handed to you on a silver platter. Buck it and stop whining this is the U.S. there are opportunities to be manifested all around ALL of us! I'm so tired of the whining. The same people who profess to hate big government are looking to the federal government to fix their finances and find the a new job. That doesn't reconcile, today or ever.
Having a positive attitude can and usually does foster a better outcome whereas a heavy slant towards cynicism and negativity begets more of the same. Not rocket science boys and girls.