I'm going to miss the Mirage. After 35 glorious years, it's closing soon - volcano, lagoon, aquarium and all - eventually to be replaced with a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and a 700-foot-tall guitar-shaped hotel tower.
Following a couple of decades of stagnant growth and little innovation along the Las Vegas Strip in the 1970s and 80s, the Mirage signaled a new era of hope and hospitality in Las Vegas and spurred a rash of mega-resorts after its opening in 1989.
Many doubted it would survive the estimated $1 million a day it needed to rake in to service the debt on its $630 million price tag. Steve Wynn and his team proved the naysayers wrong and made a fortune that eventually led to Wynn's development of Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore in Las Vegas as well as casino resorts in Macau and Boston.
Much like Caesars Palace at its opening in 1966, the Mirage upped the ante and expectations for Las Vegas casino hotels. These iconic resorts became attractions unto themselves and helped evolve a desert gambling destination into the full-fledged, entertainment and hospitality world capital it is today.
Sadly, the Mirage will become a true mirage, joining the likes of once-thriving casino resorts in Las Vegas that have become distant, dusty memories of a bygone era - the Dunes, Landmark, Sands, Frontier, Stardust, Desert Inn, Hacienda, and El Rancho to name a few.
The Tropicana is next up to be imploded, after an eternity-for-Las Vegas, 67-year run on the south end of the Strip, making way for a new baseball stadium for Major League Baseball's Athletics.
Out with the old, in with the new. They call it progress.
But as I grow older alongside these aging resorts, I appreciate and yearn for the joints that once ruled the Strip more than I anticipate what's new and on the way.
#LasVegas #Resorts #Hospitality #Innovation
Congratulations! Such a beautiful property. We can't wait to see the stories that will be created there.