Happy EDC weekend!

The annual electronic dance music festival makes this one of the busiest weekend’s of the year in Las Vegas. The Electric Daisy Carnival had 140,000 people on the first night of the festival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Las Vegas was packed all week long with people looking for a party. It seems as if everyone has been having a great time despite traffic everywhere.

This is a great weekend to visit Las Vegas if you enjoy being here when the city is full of people just looking for fun. The people watching is fantastic and the people in Las Vegas for the festival are typically just looking for fun. Let’s get to the Las Vegas news from the past week.

Stratosphere Sold To Owners Of PT’s Pub

This is probably a bigger deal for Las Vegas locals than tourists. Golden Entertainment purchased the American Casino & Entertainment Properties last week for $850 million in cash and stock. Golden Entertainment owns of PT’s Pub and more while American Casino & Entertainment owned the Stratosphere, Arizona Charlie’s (both locations), and Aquarius Casino in Laughlin.

According to their investor presentation, this purchase will put Golden Entertainment closer to Las Vegas locals casino giants Red Rock Resorts/Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming. The company will cross-market the Stratosphere with all 50+ taverns they own throughout Nevada. This would allow gamblers the ability to earn players club points for a Vegas Strip property all over town.

The thrill rides atop the Stratosphere Tower shouldn’t be going anywhere. Golden Entertainment says that the rides attract millennials – the target demographic of every business today. PT’s Pubs draws a mix of Generation X customers and Millennials and Golden Entertainment is going to look to bring those customers to the new casinos.

Expect to see food, beverage and entertainment options that focus on a slightly different customer than the Stratosphere.

Station Casinos Evolving

Like every other business, Station Casinos is looking for the customer of the future. Vegas Seven uses lots of buzzwords to vividly describe the new social experience team that Station Casinos has added. The vision for the future of Station Casinos feels a lot like a modern plan that is similar to how the Maloof brothers opened the Palms.

Palms, Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock Resort will be the first three Station Casinos properties that will see changes. The majority of what this team does will skew to attracting younger customers. The challenge will be to keep things at each property that the older locals enjoy. When the Palms first opened they did this very successfully. As a tourist, I had no idea that there was a parking garage. We just wanted to roll the dice and check out the club.

Vital Vegas is reporting that the Clique restaurants at Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock will be leaving each property. The changes have been rumored since Station Casinos purchased Palms last year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the rumor and fact-based information was revealed on the same day.

As someone who visits Red Rock Casino a few times a week (I’m actually writing this in the casino), I look forward to the changes.

Big Weeks For The Vegas Golden Knights

This week the Vegas Golden Knights will start to become a reality. The NHL expansion draft will take place on Wednesday and will help fill much of the Golden Knights roster. Later in the week, the NHL will hold its entry draft for new players. The team will also debut their uniforms during the week.

Last week The D announced a partnership with the Vegas Golden Knights. The D Las Vegas is now the official downtown Las Vegas casino of the Vegas Golden Knights. The partnership will include player appearances at The D, an annual fan fest and more. The Longbar at The D is already the place to watch sports in downtown Las Vegas. Is there a better match for hockey fans than a downtown Las Vegas casino? I don’t think so.

Stanley Cup Visiting Las Vegas

The Stanley Cup and some other NHL awards will be on display at the Park Theater Retail Store at Monte Carlo until Tuesday. You can read more at NHL.com.

Mayweather vs. McGregor Fight Almost Set

After a day of heavy rumors, Floyd Mayweather and the UFC both confirmed that the long-awaited fight with Conor McGregor will happen. The fight will take place on August 26th. The venue still hasn’t been made official yet but is expected to be T-Mobile Arena even though there’s already an event scheduled there.

This fight has been anticipated almost as much as when Floyd Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao in 2015. Much like it did 2 years ago, hotel room prices skyrocketed when the fight was confirmed. ESPN is reporting that hotel room prices increased 79% overnight after the fight was announced. Prices dropped a few days before that fight after squatters had to cancel their reservation without penalty.

Tickets aren’t on sale yet for the fight and watch parties haven’t been announced. Parties to watch the fight will be limited to bars, restaurants, and ballrooms at MGM Resorts properties. If I had to guess, I’d say that the watch party price will start around $100 per person.

Minor Expansion At Cosmopolitan

The Cosmopolitan will be expanding the 24-hour convenience store. The store will add 800 square feet by utilizing the space formerly occupied by the Identity Players Club desk. Earlier this year we detailed the new and improved Identity desk.

Las Vegas Convention Center Expansion And Renovation Approved

The $1.4 billion expansion and renovations will take place over many years in different phases. The first phase is expected to be completed by 2021. This phase will be for a 1.4-million-square-foot addition next to the existing convention center. The second phase will be a renovation of the existing 3.2 million-square-foot convention center. This phase is expected to be complete by 2023.

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