Las Vegas, Environmentalist Mecca?

OK, I'm sure to come under a bit of mockery for my piece today in USA Today. Already, the USAT message boards are overflowing with commentary about how Vegas can never been seen as environmentally sensitive because its very existence defies the laws of the environment.

It wasn't my intention to claim that this is the center of sustainability. But it is instructional that these massive resorts are doing all of these things to become LEED-certified, albeit my discussion of their financial benefits thanks to huge state tax breaks was curtailed.

Bottom line is that all of this green building is going on where you'd absolutely least expect it. And the LEED people themselves see a greater good in being able to say, "If a Vegas resort can do it, so can you" to the rest of corporate America.

Alan Thicke is a liar, I think

Norm Clarke caught up with the esteemed former star of "Growing Pains" yesterday, according to today's paper. Thicke played dumb. He told Norm he was unaware of any commitment to meet with the media on Friday.

So let's consider the choices here.

Choice A: A diabolical East Coast publicist, John Passuth, arranges interviews with a low-level celebrity for several Vegas journalists knowing all the while that the celebrity himself won't be available. He even calls one journalist -- me -- minutes before the interview to ensure that I arrive at the precise location I am needed. But really, it's all a big bait-and-switch. When I arrive, the low-level celebrity is said to bolt exactly when he is to conduct the interview. Passuth says the celebrity's people have canceled all his appearances for the rest of the day because of an incident that occurred. This, the publicist believes, will engender good will among journalists and help get coverage for his product, the electric BMW car.

Choice B: Alan Thicke is a very bad, very peculiar liar. Also, a prima donna well beyond his station in celebrityland. (See Norm's mistake yesterday as to which 1980s sitcom he was on.) Also, he's got no class. Because even if he is telling the truth -- which is extremely difficult to imagine and requires large-scale deception for no tangible purpose on the part of several other people -- but even if he's telling the truth, then he's just got no class. Because busier, more important and smarter celebrities than Alan Thicke wouldn't have gotten on the bus and left knowing that a reporter had been promised an interview and was on site. At the very least, they would arrange for a raincheck. But, anyway, what was Thicke's big rush if he wasn't deliberately ditching us in a fit of pique? Did he have a prayer session with Kirk Cameron to get to?

Those are the choices, anyway. Pick one!

So after I reposted my 2001 essay on why China should not have been awarded the 2008 Olympics, my editors at the Philadelphia Inquirer invited me to revisit the topic on the eve of the Beijing Games. Here's what runs today in the paper's Op-Ed section...

China's other games

By STEVE FRIESS

One especially cold week in early 2001, inspectors for the International Olympic Committee were in Beijing poking around in advance of making a recommendation as to whether the Chinese deserved to host the 2008 Summer Games.

It was the heart of a particularly bitter winter, so the dead grass outside the hotel of the IOC emissaries could be forgiven. Still, cameras for CNN caught workers spraying some green substance in the middle of the night to make it seem unseasonably lush. The China Daily would later refute that charge, denying it was paint, calling it, instead, a "color-enhancement substance."

Moral: Nobody should be surprised, as we peer ahead to this week's opening ceremonies for the Olympics, that things are not as the Chinese promised they would be. Painting the grass was only the most ridiculous and unnecessary lie they told to get this far, but it also symbolized just how absurdly far they'd go to secure this honor.

There were more than enough reasons in 2001 to know that this nation - operated by a brutal, greedy autocracy, more adept at stirring up nationalistic fervor than any since the Nazis - was faking its way to the altar with legacy-seeking IOC chief Jacques Rogge and the rest of his gang.

In fact, I listed several of them in these very pages on July 23, 2001. "When the free champagne stops flowing," I wrote then, ". . . those who were swept up in rooting for this accomplishment may wake to the reality that this could be a huge fiasco."

Honey, the alarm clock's ringing.

Read the rest HERE

Stood Up By Alan Thicke!?!!?

(UPDATE, 11:44 a.m. PT, 8/2: Norm in today's Review-Journal lead off with this incident here. He didn't clarify much, but I suspect we'll be hearing more. ALSO, a nightclub-scene website reports of Blush, the ultra-lounge at Wynn: "Celebrities like Alan Thicke was seen here last night having a good time." Wowzer. He snubs the media he's paid by BMW to cater to and then pops up at Blush to rock it. And Blush, which is referred to on that site as "one of the hottest club scenes in Vegas" has his presence to show for proof of its place in the zeitgeist. Can't make this shit up.)

I've had a long career in the media. A lot has happened to me in a lot of places. And I've never been so bizarrely mistreated as I was today by, of all people, Alan Thicke. You know, the kindly dad from "Growing Pains."

He just became our new what-a-jerk-off punchline. Earlier in the week, a PR rep approached me with an offer for an interview with Thicke, who was in Las Vegas to shill for BMW's new electric Mini Cooper. I figured I'd go ahead and take the interview for "The Strip" -- Thicke has some sort of game show event coming up in Vegas in October -- and check out the electric car. I had just earlier in the week had an interview for The New York Times with an Arizona developer who insisted that electric cars were the big new thing, so I happened to have coincidentally begun taking an interest in doing a piece on the topic.

I agreed to meet Thicke at the Las Vegas Ice Center, a hockey and skating rink far across town from me. I was to interview him while we rode together to the Hard Rock. This would be a significant time investment, having to drive literally from one end of the valley to the other, then ride with Thicke almost all the way back, then have someone take me way out west again to get my car. Here's what the drive from near our house to the place I was to meet Thicke looks like:


It's far. And it's 110F out. And my car A/C, valiant though it is, wasn't really capable of keeping me cool given all the lights and traffic. Woe is me.

By Thursday, I was starting to realize I was pretty overbooked for Friday. But I had promised to meet Thicke and he was only in town for a day, so I moved interviews and appointments I had set up for pieces I've got going for the L.A. Times, New York Times and the Las Vegas Weekly. I also, as I always do, spent hours online prepping by reading a zillion old stories and drawing up questions. I wanted to read Thicke's new book in advance, but nobody on his team could manage to get a copy to me. I'm kinda glad now.

About five minutes before I arrived, the rep, John Passuth of Avalanche PR, even called from his East Coast offices to make sure I knew precisely where in the parking lot I needed to be. So imagine my surprise when I show up on time, get out of my car, walk up to the lady who is supposed to lead me to my interview and discover that the interview is off.

She said: "Alan's already on the bus. He's gone. I'm sorry. This interview is off."

Huh? Five minutes ago this was a go. Now it's off. Period. Not "we'll reschedule" or "do you want to check out the electric car anyway" or "can we get you a cold drink before you risk heat stroke on the ride home." It's just off. Buh-bye.

I started back home and checked my voicemail. There was this from Mr. Passuth: "Alan Thicke had an emerency and has left the premises and we will have to cancel the interview. I am terribly, terribly sorry. We just got word from Alan's people. I've never dealt with anyone who dropped the ball within a minute or two of the interview so I'm embarrassed to even make this call."

As well he should be. When I got back to my computer, I wrote demanding an explanation. This was Passuth's response: "His publicist told us that he has canceled his entire afternoon of media. There was a situation with an earlier event at the ice center, nothing to do with my client or the car, that is the catalyst for all of this. Sorry I don't have a more detailed explanation for you."

What might have happened? Maybe some deranged "Family Ties" fan thought he was Alex P. Keaton's dad and that just drives Alan Thicke NUTS. Who knows. All I know is that Alan Thicke blew a massive hole in my busy day and all I got was this shitty blog post.

A sign of things to come...

On the live version of "The Strip" this week, Miles and I were chattering about the wrap at Flamingo. We cut that bit out of the edited podcast because neither of us had a clue what was going on down there and someone in the chat said the Toni Braxton hoo-hoo wrap had been replaced by Nathan Burton. There was some other reason that we cut it out, but I can't remember it right now.

Well, as you can see above, Donny and Marie are, in fact, being unfurled across the face of the building. Burton has a wrap on a smaller building a bit farther north obstructed in this image by a utility pole. I shot this photo this afternoon.

Speaking of D&M, I got an email earlier this week from an uber-queer friend who had seen them at the MGM Grand this week and who reported, uh, exuberantly: "THEY CRUSHED IT! I felt like a teenage girl all over again...they were so good!!! And Marie still looks great!!!"

My friend wanted to know why I'm so down on them coming back to the Strip, so I wanted to clarify that. I'm not down on this. What I am is confused by how this fits into the Flamingo Las Vegas' plans under ex-Hard Rock president Don Marrandino to sex-up and modernize the resort and its clientele. Everything else they had done, from the Go Rooms to Toni Braxton to Margaritaville to kicking out Gladys Knight seemed on track to make this place the mid-Strip, mid-market 40-and-under place to stay.

Donny & Marie just don't fit into that program. It doesn't mean I don't think they'll do a good show or draw people in. I just don't get the big idea here. It would seem they would fit the demo of Harrah's Las Vegas better. That's all.

Boyd Halts Echelon Construction

In more depressing signs that this economic downturn is hitting Vegas harder than pretty much any other in more devastating and tangible ways that will take ever longer to recover from, Boyd Gaming today halted construction on its planned $4.8 billion resort on the old Stardust property because of, of course, financing problems. In the process, they seem to have lost their joint-venture partner, Morgan Hotel Group.

Here's the company's statement: "We have decided to delay construction of our Echelon project on the Las Vegas Strip due to the difficult environment surrounding today's capital markets and the challenging economic conditions that currently exist. We expect to resume construction when credit market conditions and the overall outlook for the economy improve."

That, they said, could take nine months to a year. It was originally due to open summer of 2010.

These photos below come from an email sent out by Deutsche Bank gaming stock analyst Bill Lerner. They were taken early this morning to show how far the project had come so far. The company had already invested $500 million, but Wall Street greeted the news that Boyd had realized its limits by running up the stock by more than 20 percent, its largest gain in eight years.





Unlike the shadenfraude of taking note of the struggles of the arrogant and misleading Trump folks, this really makes me sad. The Boyd folks are from top to bottom nice, helpful and humble people and I've been excited to see what they come up with over there.

Is There A 9/11 Room Rate Discount?

Here's this week's LVW column...

The price is … strange

Room rates take a curious plunge right around the anniversary of 9-11

By STEVE FRIESS

I am not one of those 9-11 conspiracy nuts. I have an eccentric British pal who does believe that George W. Bush, despite his incompetence at ordering in lunch, was behind the most horrific events of our time. This friend is constantly forwarding e-mails asserting that the Baltimore family behind Vegas casino implosions actually imploded the World Trade Center and made it look to the stupid people of the world as if some “hijacked” airplanes caused their fall.

I reject all this, so I’m sane, right?

Well, maybe. But I won’t hold it against you if you wonder about me after I tell you this:

I am a 9-11 Vegas-hotel-discount conspiracy nut.

Stay with me for a moment. Something weird is going on around here.

About a week ago, for reasons I can’t even recall, I took a look at room rates in September at the MGM Grand. I was surprised to notice that in the week of September 7, the resort’s rates fell to their lowest level of the entire month—$100 a night—on that Thursday. That Thursday is the seventh anniversary of the terror attacks. Every other Thursday that month, the rates were the highest of the Monday to Thursday rates. During that particular, auspicious week, the rates fall dramatically.

Odd, thought I. Could it really be that, lo these many years later, there’s still some residual impact on occupancy because people prefer not to travel or recreate on that date?

My brain said no, but my heart said yes, so the next thing I knew, I was obsessively scanning hotels.com to see if other resorts on the Strip saw similar dips on 9/11/08. Here is the list of resorts that see unusual room-rate drops on that Thursday: Luxor, Bally’s, Harrah’s, Bellagio, New York-New York, Treasure Island, Paris, The Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Hilton, Golden Nugget, the Rio, Hard Rock, Wynn and Trump. There may be more.

The Mandalay Bay and Hard Rock were particularly startling. At Mandalay Bay, the room rate is $210 Sunday through Wednesday, then $120 on Thursday, a $90 drop. At the Hard Rock, the rates are $299 Monday through Wednesday and $109 on Thursday. That’s a $190 decrease! The Wynn is also kind of odd: The rate all that week and the week after is $499 per night except on September 11, when it’s $399.

Read the rest HERE