Murren and Ralston: It's Even Worse

Jon Ralston undersold himself -- or teased us to watch, if you believe him to be that diabolical -- regarding his exchange with MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren about Murren's remark to me that he's never been in Encore or Palazzo and doesn't even know when Encore had opened.

Here's the whole exchange, which begins when Ralston asks him about the remark and quotes from my L.A. Weekly story:

Murren: Honestly, I wouldn’t have gone to the spa tower if I didn’t work at MGM Mirage and Bellagio opened up the spa tower. There would be no reason for it. I wouldn’t need to. I live in Summerlin. I have a great community. I coach my kids. I have a lot of restaurants out there. If I didn't work in the resort community, I probably wouldn't come down here much. That was my point. That is my point as a counterpoint to CityCenter. I really believe it is not a casino-hotel. I really would not be upset at all if people never visit Aria that live here, but I would be upset if they didn’t try to wander around CityCenter and enjoy the environment. I think that’s something that would be enhancing to them.

Ralston: You don’t think as the CEO of the biggest employer in the valley, you should check out the competition once in a while?

Murren: I do, but you know we have great people. You called me the Father of CityCenter. You know, Jon, that we have 50,000 people working for us right now. I have the most talented men and women in management that know more about than I will ever know about casino operations, hotel operations, casino marketing, hotel marketing, I don’t need to go to every property to get an idea what’s happening.

Click on the image below to watch this segment.


You can watch all four segments of Jon's talk with Murren here. Well worthwhile.

So here's the problem. Murren admits he has no need to go to any of these places, it's not his thing, he wouldn't even have gone to his own property if it weren't his job. This is NOT a man who has a great passion for the offerings that Vegas-goers enjoy. He does not identify with most of you who read this blog.

And yet Jim Murren has just decided that he understands what travelers who come here want -- to the tune of a $8.5 billion complex. There's a disconnect there and it's a very, very important one.

Murren speaks of "themed resorts" as if (a) they're tawdry and (b) anyone's opened a new one since 1999. All that has been built -- I'm leaving out Aladdin/Planet Hollywood because that's a strange anomaly in so many ways -- in recent years have been upscale quarters for the increasingly wealthy, hip and cultured. What's new this decade? The Palms, Wynn, Encore, Palazzo, Palms Place, Red Rock Resort and M. Not a theme to be found in any of those. And Murren would know this if he'd do his due diligence as head of this corporation. (Palazzo, despite its name, really is themeless.)

No, the argument could be made that in a marketplace increasingly crowded with stuff for a class of people whose numbers are shrinking, a new themed resort geared to the rest of us would be a delightful, welcome and distinctive change of pace.

What's more, Murren is eschewing the sort of serious in-the-trenches research that Wynn, Maloof, the Fertittas, the Boyds, the Marnells and others are known to do in a constant fashion. You just can't understand Vegas secondhand or from a report. Just ask anyone who was dragged here kicking and screaming by a spouse or friend and then had all their preconceived notions erased.

CityCenter was Jim Murren's idea. A community is now reliant on its success. But when Murren tells us he thinks he knows what travelers want in Las Vegas, he's basing it on what?

Murren Is OK With Locals Skipping Aria

One of the quotes that fell out of my 4,100-word L.A. Weekly opus on CityCenter in the editing phase was this from RateVegas.Com owner Hunter Hillegas: "It's almost as though if Jim Murren could have built Aria without a casino, he would have." Murren, of course, is the MGM Mirage CEO.

I asked CityCenter president Bobby Baldwin about that notion and he found it "completely ridiculous."

Baldwin: He has an affinity to making money and he knows he couldn't make any money at CityCenter if he didn't have a powerful casino-resort. So there was never any discussion of having no casino at all in there.

Friess: Right, but you are a gambler. You understand the appeal of gambling.

Baldwin: So does Jim Murren, even though he's not a gambler. ... He knows that the casino component of any casino-resort is the economic driver of its economic results. So he's acutely aware of that.

OK. So Murren knows it's necessary. That's not the same as liking it and most of the company's planned future expansion outside of Las Vegas aims to rebrand MGM Mirage as a hospitality company with non-gaming hotels in Dubai, Egypt, China and elsewhere.

The reason I bring this up is because Jon Ralston asked Murren today about his admission -- boast? -- to me that he'd never been in Encore or Palazzo. Here's that quote to me in its entirety:

I’ve never been in Encore, when did it open up? I’ve never been into Palazzo. It’s not that I don’t care, I just don’t need to go. But I do know – I have nothing against either one of those guys, especially Steve Wynn, I like him a lot. But [CityCenter] is not going to be, for most people, the same as just another resort opening up. I know it won’t.

Now, it's not just that he's saying he's never been in but that he seems proud that he doesn't even know when the last most significant events in his marketplace occurred. That would seem strange in and of itself -- surely the head of Coffee Bean knows when a new Starbucks opens nearby, right? -- but now comes Murren's further explanation of the remark to Ralston in a TV interview for Ralston's "Face To Face" show. According to Ralston's transcript of his interview with Murren, which should air tonight on Las Vegas One, Murren said:

"I live in Summerlin. I have a great community. I coach my kids. I have a lot of restaurants out there. If I didn't work in the resort community, I probably wouldn't come down here much. That was my point. That is my point as a counterpoint to CityCenter. I really believe it is not a casino-hotel. I really would not be upset at all if people never visit Aria that live here. ... ."

Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Baldwin said Aria's casino is the economic engine of the whole she-bang and Murren knows that. But Murren doesn't even care if his neighbors ever see it and, if he didn't have to because he gets millions to do so, he might never bother either! This is not a ringing endorsement of the most significant financial element of your new endeavor, is it?

So let's remove Aria from CityCenter. Without it, you're left with four buildings containing private residences, two of which are also hotels that contain no shows or casinos. And you have a 500,000-square-foot "retail and entertainment district" with some of the most expensive products anyone can sell anywhere in the world, not exactly a locals-friendly shopping experience. Plus a whole lot of terrific art and an oft-mentioned pocket park that Murren recommends as a neat place to sit even though there's no place (yet) to sit. (Note to fellow journos: There is only one pocket park at CityCenter. One. So "pocket parks" is not accurate. Thanks.)

Again, there are lots of elements of CityCenter I love. But it is worrisome when a massive gaming company is being piloted by someone who isn't personally aware of his competition and seems so personally uncomfortable with the heart of his business.

I asked Steve Wynn about this, too. In the old days, it was customary for the casino moguls to walk one another around their properties pre-opening. It was standard for them to attend one another's openings, too. And here's what Wynn replied when told of Murren's statement:

"He didn’t ask me! I’d love to give him a tour. He can have anything he wants. He can go in the back of the house, he can go in the accounting room, he can look at the financial statements. Oh, hell, if he called me up if he wanted to know what the daily operating expenses were, I’d tell him. Absolute open book."

Wynn has walked CityCenter or at least the Crystals, by the way, with his former
protege Bobby Baldwin. No idea what he thought of it, though. His company did this on Sunday...

...though. The Twitterverse lauded Wynn's class but I'm sure MGM Mirage did the same for Encore and Palazzo. And I found the second sentence in that full-page R-J ad a little loaded:

"Most of all we wish the thousands of people that will staff CityCenter a happy and secure future."

Oh, and one more thing. You think maybe if I wore a disguise and pretended to be Murren, Wynn would show me all that stuff, too? Worth a shot, no?

Following up on The Sun's Firings

I'm not going to belabor the Greenspun Media Group firings much longer except to note that, for those who haven't looked, the count on the list I'm compiling is now 37. I appeared with Dave Berns on "State of Nevada" on KNPR last week to mull the thing and it dawned on me during that chat that the Greenspun family hadn't invested heavily in just one industry now in dire straits -- media -- but in at least two others, casinos (via now-bankrupt Station Casinos) and real estate. Yikes, huh?

Also, Jon Ralston, the most prominent and significant brand associated with Greenspun Media Group, finally wrote some thoughts on the carnage four days -- and an email from me baffling over why he hadn't said anything -- later. Knowing that Ralston would be instantly all over Review-Journal publisher Sherm Frederick if Sherm had fired three dozen people and then wrote a column pretending that this "consolidation" would produce a better product and waxing on about "hope," what Jon did write was intriguing and worth sharing.

This was at the bottom of the Friday edition of his daily e-mail newsletter, the Ralston Flash:

Dear Flashees,

I have been tardy in not commenting on the layoffs at Greenspun Media this week. I am almost glad I let a blizzard of events in my own extreme-entropy-filled life get in the way because I have been able to soak in the various takes, most of them uninformed, from the outside.

Amid all the handwringing are two realities: The company’s financial constriction and the brutally sad loss of 40 jobs.

I have no clue of the parent company’s balance sheet but I am sure it is no different than most of the major companies in Southern Nevada – that is, hurting. So I am sure the Greenspuns felt they had to do something to stanch the bleeding, no matter how painful, just as gaming goliaths and development behemoths have. But it just feels different to people in the business when this happens to others in the business, especially those of us still with jobs. We feel guilt mixed with sympathy and overall, a sense of loss, both tangible and intangible.

There were some great, talented people let go this week and I hope they find jobs, even though employment in journalism is more and more dicey. These are dark days for those of us who prize the profession, as we have seen newspapers and TV stations cut and gut their staffs, and I wonder if the quality can be maintained.

I have seen and heard criticism of how this was handled at Greenpsun Central. [sic] So be it. But is there a good way to handle such a cataclysm? I don’t think anything could have softened the blow for those laid off this week. As for the observation that this is the dismantling of an organization that just won a Pulitzer, that the Sun grabbed the prize and then disbanded the team, let’s wait awhile. A new business and journalism model is in its nascent stages, so let’s see how it plays out. I’m hopeful that this is not, as some ominously foretell, the beginning of the end, but rather a new beginning.

One more valedictory: I wanted to say a word of thanks and well wishes to Mike Kelley, the Sun managing editor who presided over that Pulitzer and is now leaving the organization to spend more time with his grandchildren. Kelley arguably created something even greater and more monstrous than a Pulitzer, something called “Face to Face with Jon Ralston.” It was his vision that gave me the chance to do what has become the most enjoyable part of my journalistic career. For that, I shall be eternally grateful. He is a real newsman and I wish him all the best.

I'll ignore all the "those dastardly outsiders don't know the real story" crap because it's what some people say about many of Jon's commentaries, too, so I know he doesn't mean it. And I'll say that it's too bad Jon didn't pay homage to his own dismissed editor, Pat Teague, since Pat probably would've prevented Jon from misspelling the name of his own employer.

Nah, I'll move right on to the part where Jon asks: "But is there a good way to handle such a cataclysm?"

In fact, there is! I read a very interesting piece about this very topic recently! The headline was "Workplace transparency helps ease pain of employee layoffs." The piece opens with these four words: "Talk to us. Please." The idea is that layoffs are a little less stinging when both those who leave and those who remain have a clue what the circumstance of the company is. Also -- and this isn't in that story but kinda is a teaspoon of common sense -- it does nobody favors to have their former boss try to cast their unemployment as a cause for anyone to feel affirmed or upbeat. And I can't tell you the number of emails I've received from the fired thanking me to keeping that list. Being acknowledged for your service, it seems, also makes the pain a little more palatable.

Oh, that story I just referenced? Ahh, right. It was in IN Business Las Vegas. It was probably edited by Jeff Simpson, now the former editor of the GMG publication which also carries a weekly column by Jon Ralston.

It ran on Nov. 27. Four days before the Sun's Black Tuesday.

Wynn Out, Murren In This Afternoon

Sorry folks, but I just got word from Steve Wynn that he would prefer I not air the audio of our conversation. As I probably mentioned, the interview was laced with sections that were off-the-record and, while I feel I've cut those out, he asked me not to air it and I will oblige.

That said, there are two upsides:

* He's fine with me writing all sorts of pieces based on the conversation, so there will be loads of good stuff I'll post in the next few days about Bette Midler, Garth and a few other topics.

* He offered me an interview specifically for the podcast and hopefully we'll be able to do that in the next week or so.

So, instead, we're playing my lengthy and revelatory interview with MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren in which I confront him with the hideousness of the Elvis wrap and the fact that there remains no evidence whatsoever that anyone wants to live on the Strip.

Hopefully you'll join us after all. We'll still start at about 4 -- not sure the format yet -- and we'll have Hunter Hillegas of RateVegas.Com in the studio so we can mull our reactions to the Mandarin Oriental party last night and other CityCenter-related stuff.

Join us at LVRocks.Com to listen live and chat with fellow listeners. I hope this is posted early enough that nobody feels bait-and-switched.

Friday Funnies

It's been such a grim week for so many people, I thought I'd try to lighten it up with some of the silly stuff I collect around these parts. Like, for instance, this headline from a few weeks ago in the View, the weekly R-J neighborhood supplement. It's not enough that I'm a total hypochondriac, but now the newspaper is giving me a reason? I somehow failed to cut out the beginning of this story because I figured I'd be able to find it in online, but it actually went something like, "You know that headache you thought was just stress? It could be cancer." No, really.

And what if I got a headache because I stretched this carton of milk all the way...

...to its sell-by date, 120 years from now.

Maybe my pal, photog Denise Truscello, whose birthday was this week, can give me a sense of what it's like to live that long...


She looks REALLY good for 106, too...


I pulled into Sonic recently because Miles likes a Reese's blast when he has a headache, and while I waited I noticed this thing hanging from the board:


Let me get this straight. If they DON'T try to upsell us, we get $2? So we're supposed to WANT to have the inconvenience of telling a barely coherent voice through a speaker no, no, no, all we want to commit suicide-by-diet today is what we've already ordered?

You can't blame 'em though, when this...


...was the most thrilling thing that happened to me that day. Maybe if this lady I shot at the BlogWorld convention in October had a Sonic blast...


...she'd be happier?

There were some fun cartoons I clipped in recent weeks that gave me a giggle:


Somebody was bound to do this one sooner or later, but it still made me laugh:


And, finally, while I am stung and dismayed by the people the Las Vegas Sun fired this week, I'm heartened that cartoonist Mike Smith wasn't one of them. And here's yet another reason why:


Happy Weekend, everyone!

Busy Day Ahead...

Gotta dash off to KNPR now to join Dave Berns on State of Nevada from 9:40a-10a PT for chatter about Steve Wynn, CityCenter, Las Vegas Sun layoffs and, so I hear, what the Tiger Woods drama could mean for Vegas clubs. (I know, I know. I go where the host wants me to. Friesster = Media Whore.)

Then I need to finish an overdue Sphere.Com piece on, yes, CityCenter, before the Crystals media open house from noon-5. Plus, gotta rent me a tux for the Mandarin Oriental opening on Friday night -- this is Vegas, quickie tux rental should be easy, yes? -- and I've got a LVW column idea that'll also take a little legwork.

So I probably won't be able to blog much today, but I've been very efficient at approving comments, which is easier to do via iPhone than anything else on Blogger, and there've been loads of them so browse the site. And keep 'em coming.

And, also, please take a look at my largest and most significant CityCenter piece, the cover of L.A. Weekly. It's a 4,000-word examination of the premises of the project and raises some issues I have yet to see anyone discuss in this rah-rah period. The piece was edited by Drex Heikes, the editor who drove Ali Berzon's Pulitzer-winning package on CityCenter construction deaths at the Sun. He got out of dodge before the carnage, much to my benefit.

Wynn: CityCenter's No Mirage

Here's this week's Las Vegas Weekly "The Strip Sense" column, in which Steve Wynn takes apart what he views as a myth that there's any comparison between pre-Mirage skeptics and pre-CityCenter skeptics.

Is Steve Wynn Rooting For CityCenter?

By STEVE FRIESS

It’s the conventional wisdom, so naturally Steve Wynn must do his best to explode it.

As we plod through this period of CityCenter launches that culminates on December 16 with the grand opening of the 4,004-room Aria, the response to skepticism about the project’s very premise is, again and again, to refer back to naysayers who predicted the doom of the Mirage when it bowed in 1989. The Review-Journal, in fact, built its entire Mirage-at-20 piece last month upon the notion that the sourpusses who insist on examining CityCenter’s potential through the lens of the current market and the questions about its lofty, unproved concepts are the same as those who doubted Steve Wynn two decades ago.

Nothing seems to piss Steve Wynn off more these days, not even Obamacare or Garth Brooks ticket scalpers.

“To compare CityCenter to Mirage is a ridiculous non sequitur,” he shouted into the phone last week. “It made a nice story, but it fails to examine the facts, like most of the stuff you guys write.”

Happy to pretend that by “you guys” he meant everyone but me, I pressed on. I had just finished two lengthy interviews with CityCenter President Bobby Baldwin, the executive Wynn plucked from the Golden Nugget poker room and made his first lieutenant and with whom he built the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio. Baldwin parted ways with Wynn after MGM bought Mirage and has overseen CityCenter’s construction and development since it was but a bubble diagram conjured up by MGM Mirage’s then-president/now-CEO Jim Murren and design chief Bill Smith back in 2004.

“At the Mirage, we had nothing but negative publicity until the day we opened,” Baldwin recalled. “‘It’s gonna cost too much to run, it cost too much to build, it’s going to cannibalize the marketplace, the Las Vegas visitor volumes aren’t big enough for a place as large as Mirage.’ Then the day we opened, everyone went silent, and all they said were good things.”

Wynn didn’t deny that all of these things were said about the Mirage. It’s just different because while the Mirage was seen then as the great revolution of Las Vegas, all its moving parts had actually been seen and proven before.

Read the rest HERE