User profile: JLOKC

Las Vegas (Clark County) is a mushroom community-it has size but no roots. Turn this downturn into a positive; build better roads, gain long term water access, stabilize the schools and establish a realistic tax base. T&M needs a realistic $150 million makeover and Sam Boyd needs $50 million. These would be effective investements in Las Vegas that would support the real sports fan base. I think the 21st century opportunity for Las Vegas is to place itself as a city that is forward moving wile not being a sports town. Not every city is a sports town; just as not every city is a culture town. I'm a huge sports fan, so it pains me to write this.
P.S. MIlwaukee Bucks owner U.S. Senator Herb Kohn (D. Wisconsin) has zero intention of moving the team out of state. The City knows it and is playing hardball because they can.

With the $8 Billion combination of Echelon and F'Bleau unfinished and the lending markets "constricted", who is going to invest in or loan on this project? Las Vegas doesn't need any more Casinos for at least 10 years and the footprint is too small. The location, however, is fantastic, and if the Lady Luck were included as the Casino base, then it might be less of a boondogle. This project is doomed, IMO, by Nevadans refusal to pay it for with public funding (tax dollars). The Casino windfall has allowwed Nevadans to have a warped understanding of the public cost of Civic improvement projects.

I think it would be impossible for the billboard to have been seen by 37 million, even including multiple views by the same person. If they lie about that, what else are they lying anout?

Icahn bought the Trops in Atlantic City and Laughlin only, he doesn't have any interest in the Las Vegas Tropicana. Penn should have struck earlier in 2009 instead of kicking tires. MGM might have sold something else beside Treasure Island, but now they don't have to. Harrah's is probably out of the woods as well, leaving only some independents possibly available.

Regardless of what Penn would pay for it, this is still a $4 billion property. By that I mean the occupancy, upkeep and marketing demands will be massive. Imagine if Harrah's had gone straight from regional Casinos to buying Caesars with nothing on the Strip in between. They would be instantly in over their head and their customer base has nowhere near that high end a need. I think Penns answer is across the street to the South. They could probably get the Riviera for $300 million, spiff it up for a couple hundred mil more, and establish a Las Vegas base that would function well for at least 15 years and let them expand logically elswhere on the Strip.