LVW Col: Cosmo Caps A Vegas Era

Here's this week's LVW column, sure to be significantly less controversial than last week's. Sorry! Enjoy. -sf

Cosmopolitan: a fitting bookend
By STEVE FRIESS

So this is how it ends, huh?

Here we go, heading once again into yet another December casino-resort opening on the Strip. This time it’s the $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, scheduled to start taking bets a year after the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex did so, two years on from the revelation of Encore Las Vegas and three years since Palazzo Las Vegas debuted.

It may seem like old hat, a tradition of sorts. Indeed, I’ve enjoyed these annual opportunities to gather up with my friends from Vegas-obsessed cyberspace and take our newest toys for a few spins, to pore over every detail and choice, to comment on food, décor, service, marketing plan and overall sensibility. I’ve loved taking the temperature of Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Jim Murren and now John Unwin when these men are at both their most anxious and most boastful, documenting for posterity their lofty expectations and then comparing that to the reality that comes to pass thereafter.

And yet, of course, this one is different. This is the last of it, ...

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