I was doing some research in the 1997 time frame and happened across this quote in the July 1997 Casino Executive Magazine:
“If you’re the last person to build that last $1 billion project in Las Vegas, you might be wishing you hadn’t spent your money that way.”
–Harrah’s [then] CEO Phil Satre
From the perspective of 2009, truer words have never been spoken. You’ve got to adjust for inflation, of course; if we were only talking $1 billion projects, no one would be worrying at all.
Of course, it’s always easy to make bold predictions on either side since the economy runs in such cycles. Someone preaching doom sounded out of touch in 2006, and someone ringing the bell for expansion sounds like a pollyanna now. When you consider that Satre was speaking before the Bellagio opened, you’ve got to admit that the bulls had a pretty good run.