RIP, Stardust!

Does Circus Circus still look anything like it did in Diamonds Are Forever?

 

Yeah, if you're watching it on a crappy old VHS tape on a 15-year-old VCR.

Circus Circus is really bad. It was really bad 17 years ago, and it's gone downhill since. The "circus" areas are now pretty much a hangout for teens dumped there by their parents.

I will miss Stardust though. Haven't stayed there in a while, but I enjoyed it when I did.

 

Check out all of the great demolitions at:

http://www.leavinglv.net/home.html

 

RIP Stardust.

Also, did anyone know that Barbary Coast is no more? Harrah's and Boyd Gaming (who owned Stardust, too) apparently made a swap. Not sure what Boyd got in the deal, but Harrah's will be naming BC as Bill's Hotel and Casino or something to that nature. Bill is for Bill Harrah, or so I read in the Riverside Press Enterprise a week or so ago.

 

"Circus Circus is what the world would look like if the Third Reich had won the War."-Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971.

 

Coverage of Barbary Coast modifications:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22barbary+coast%22+vegas&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

Coverage of Stardust' implosion:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=%22Stardust%22+imploded

 

Claws:

Boyd received (for the most part) the old Westward Ho "lot", just to the north of the 'dust property. They needed the space for the Echelon Place megaplex. Stardust regulars are being directed / recruited to utilize Boyd's Orleans property, west of the strip, on Tropicana. Barbary's employees have been told that the plan is to keep the place open until sometime in '09.....although the table minimums have already all been doubled. The Coast Casino shuttles are still running....for now.

The Megaresort (multiple boutique hotels, string of casinos, clubs and eateries, city within a city....all behind a walled in area that one "never has to leave") concept is driving these changes. MGM-Mirage already has their "City Center" project underway (between Monte Carlo & Bellagio, centered around the old Boardwalk location), Harrahs is (was) projected to be rehabbing / constructing theirs, anchored by Harrahs on the North and Barbary Coast or Ballys to the south. However, Harrahs is looking at a buyout / takeover.....and all bets are currently off.

 

With casino gaming available in almost anyone's backyard, and with the Vegas-as-family-vacation-spot concept thankfully torpedoed, Vegas had to do something to be unique again. Becoming a rich-persons-only destination seems to be the current plan, tho one nasty economic downturn is gonna send a lot of ritzatoriums crashing down. I wonder if the downtown spots are being marketed as economy alternatives, or if downtown is being left to rot (Fremont Street Experience notwithstanding).

 

Dooley, while I'm as glad as anyone to see the "family friendly" LV gone (good grief...leave the kids at HOME!!, that's not the only group that's being squeezed out of the Strip. The low roller (how I came to know and love LV) and the middle class / couple times a year vacationer have also been priced out.....both room-wise and gaming-wise. The Strip is pretty much the home for the highest of rollers, conventioneers and no-rollers (just there for the Ultra Lounges).

IMO, the low roller crowd (the old Sahara, Boardwalk, Imperial Palace, Westward Ho,etc folks) have gravitated to / been directed to the Fremont Street area. There's no particular marketing push, other than the event-related stuff (concerts under the canopy during NASCAR & Pro Rodeo week, the CHAMP CAR street race). I still loves me some Fremont Street....but I pour myself into a cab, before heading "home" for the evening.

Your middle of the road professionals / trip or two a year types (my wife and I) are really being marketed / directed toward the "locals" places. Boyd and Station branded resorts. For example, we used to stay at the Flamingo / Ballys / New York, New York. Our last 7-8 trips, we've been exclusively at the Orleans. Still get a nice room, a few amenities and good gaming, at a price that still allows us to have some fun while in town.

All that said, I believe it's gonna be a REAL mess, when the inevitable economic downturn comes. All this construction & "high ending" is financed and leveraged to the gills.

 

When I was in Vegas last summer, I had a feeling it would be the last time I visited for several years. I don't see spending $300 per night for a room (and I can't imagine the new joints offering discounted poker room rates for a low-limit grinder). And I don't see myself buying one of the new condos going up on or right off the Strip.