My column in this week’s Las Vegas Business Press is out. It’s a meditation on what less ambitious Strip developments really mean for Las Vegas.
With just about everyone in the industry mistaking the 2005-2007 boom for a new normal, it made tons of sense to trade in your sun-faded casino for a newer, bigger one with higher revenue per available room.It seems incredible that the 2000s saw exactly as many big casino demolitions as the 1990s four in each decade, but the Strip’s upside seemed so limitless that the present seemed little more than a springboard to better times.
via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : Dreamer’s paradise hit with dose of reality.
I think there’s a lot to this story. What does it mean when we stop shooting for the stars?
And that little factoid about casino demolitions surprised me. If you want to stretch it, you can say there were actually more in the 2000s. Here’s my complete list, though I kept a few out for each decade. The ones I counted are in bold”
1990s: Sands, Dunes, Hacienda, Landmark, Marina, Vegas World
2000s: Desert Inn, Stardust, New Frontier, Boardwalk, Bourbon Street, Castways/Showboat, Sahara (closed, destruction almost inevitable)
I might have forgotten one or two.