Latest / Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast / The Future of Fremont Street Experience | 348

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The Future of Fremont Street Experience | 348 · Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Price is only an issue in the absence of value.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: If people don't feel they're getting their money's worth, you're gonna hear about it.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Julie, we're back again.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And today we have Cliff Atkinson here, who I'm very excited for.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And before I introduce him too much, I want to lead up to it a little bit because you just told me you just went to Fremont Street for the first time after living here for what two years now or something?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, not two years.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a year.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: But yes, I did go for the well, first time that I remember.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, I I think there was probably one that I don't have a great memory of.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: But yes, I did go to Fremont Street for the first time this past weekend.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: What'd you think?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: I had a blast.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there was uh just tons of people playing music out on the street and lots of people in costume, which is always fun for me because I still am infatuated with the glitz and glamour side of Vegas.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then, you know, my my husband likes to play, so we went and played some tables and just walked around and drank and ate and had a good time.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, listen, Julie had such a great time that she was like, I want to thank the person responsible for this entire night out.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we got Cliff Atkinson, president and CEO of the Fremont Street Experience Experience.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Cliff, thank you for being here.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, man.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's great to be here.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is so much fun.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've how long have you been with uh Fremont Street Experience?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I just hit six months, so still fairly new to the role in the street, but but I love it.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm attributing all the amazing times that I've had down on Fremont Street to you.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: All me.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I expect nothing less.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you definitely have had quite the resume here in Vegas.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You've worked with MGM Resorts, you ran Luxor, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: You were involved with Fountain Blue, you ran Virgin Hotels, and now your Fremont Street experience, right?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the town's been very, very um very good to me.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: We love it here.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I got transferred here actually 14 years ago, and uh we were in San Francisco at the time, and I was like, ooh, Vegas.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: My kids were really young, and uh my wife and I came down here, visited, uh, did what everybody does when they come to town.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: We looked at each other and said, Yeah, let's let's do this.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that was 14 years ago.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: We've raised our family here.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And um I I think it's I think it's the best town on the planet.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the best hospitality town by a mile.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm from San Francisco, lived in New York.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's just nothing like Vegas.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So um the town's been very good to us.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Love hearing that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont Street just uh celebrated its 30th year anniversary, is that correct?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, with the with the canopy going, and uh so just celebrated 30 years as that entity is Fremont Street experience, which the history of it is is pretty remarkable.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: These owners coming together, yeah.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: These legendary casino owners, Steve Wynne, Benny Binion, uh, Bill Boyd, like you, you these are legendary names that that really created um this Fremont Street experience, which I now have the um the pride, the pleasure, and and and the great responsibility of running to lead it for the next 30 years to set it up for okay, what's next?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I that's what a great way of looking at that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's perfect segue into the the first questions that we have is there's so much history and so much that people love about the Fremont Street experience is the fact that it's you know the the spot that all the locals go to, but also tourists that have been you know to Vegas a handful of times, they now know to go to Fremont Street as well, like to add that into their thing.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: With with everything Vegas changing so much, and just Vegas in its entirety, how do you keep Fremont Street the you keep the the things that people love about it, but also modernize it to you know adjust to where the climate is going here in Vegas?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's um it's an ever-changing thing.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And back to the responsibility part, we have a responsibility to the brand, the brand that is the city of Las Vegas and certainly Fremont Street.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that we like to say there's a little, there's a little grit in our glamour.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, what you can't take away is the history.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: That is the original Las Vegas.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: And as much as the strip, which I've been a part of, has developed and these new, bigger, more expensive, all the all those casinos that have that have come, um, certainly south of Sahara, um, the city of Las Vegas is it's the birthplace.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Fremont Street was the original strip.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you talk to Mayor Shelly Berkeley, and she'll tell you when she got to town, her parents were driving up and down Fremont Street.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's where you shopped, that's where the town went.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And no matter what happens with Las Vegas, you can't recreate that history.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: 1905, it was it was Fremont Street.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So um you you bring up a really good question is how do we how do we how do we um keep it going and keep attracting people?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And part of that is our entertainment lineup and how we have some classic artists and you know, we have free music on Fremont Street.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: You'll you'll you'll hear me say this a few times.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah free music 365 days uh on Fremont Street.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, this year with downtown rocks, we've had a lot more um a lot more bands that were well known to the millennials, let's say, sleeping with sirens with 15,000 people.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Which I wanted to go to that so badly, and I couldn't make it.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is you're not a millennial.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: You are Gen, what are you Gen Z, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have an emo phase and that I didn't love sleeping with sirens.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um but but that's how we do it.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I to be fair, I didn't even know the band.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm very much, you know, I'm the 51-year-old square in the middle of Gen X.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I like my Eagles at the sphere.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize any of these album covers, by the way?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: All the when I arrive, not only the Star Wars references you got going on, but like, yeah, this this this is my jam.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: But um, you know, we had a band last Saturday, May Day Parade.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I I called it it's the Elder Millennials uh that that were there.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: There was a little gray in the beard, you know, early, uh, early 40s, late 30s.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: But to be fair, that's a whole new audience for Fremont Street.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's one of the ways um that we um that we evolve the street, but keep keep what makes it special.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's chaos down there.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's fun chaos.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: But what I what we really focused on is the safety.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna see a lot of law enforcement, our own security, friendly.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're more ambassadors, there's there's law enforcement around, but keeping that street safe, clean, all that, that's um that's always our number one goal.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, getting there's 40 million-ish visitors to Vegas every year.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: We get half, more than 20 million, come under that canopy on Fremont Street.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh when you think about we move that many people in a six-block, um, a six-block area of downtown Las Vegas, um, you know, it's very, very important to the entire Las Vegas experience.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a responsibility that me and the 300 people that work with me at Fremont Street, and that's who we need to thank, by the way, for the great experiences you've had.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the team of Fremont Street Experience.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: The team that book the entertainment, that put it on every night, that market it, that keep the street safe, that keep the street clean.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: I have a team of custodials that have to clean Fremont Street.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, just think about that, what that takes.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's so um uh it's it's those incredible individuals that we work for the city of Las Vegas at the end of the day.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well said.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Julie.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously moving f to Fremont Street from where you had been previously in your career has to be such a vast change.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, for example, at the Luxor or the Virgin, everyone's kind of working towards the success of that one property, but you're dealing with a a board of executives who work together, but they're also probably they have competing ideas or competing goals on certain things.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, how different is that from being a representative of one property versus having to balance the needs and desires of everybody else at Fremont Street?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great question.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there's there's two answers to it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And one the one is it's no different than anything that I've I've ever done in terms of running a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week hospitality business.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And whether that's a luxury hotel like Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, that's what brought me here, or um a giant casino like Luxor, which was my first casino, my first gaming license.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's why Bill Hornbuckle and MGN put me there.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, you can't screw that one up too much.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So go get that done and uh and love that.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: But it's always 24-7.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's certainly what Fremont Street is.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And my board, Angular, you bring up a great point.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: The board is made up of nine casinos that that are on Fremont Street.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think they like that I came from their world, but at the end of the day, that's we're we're all doing the same thing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're putting on a party, we're attracting customers, taking care of people, hospitality.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that is what we do.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: But we do have, you know, I have I have nine board members, but I have nine different board members.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, look, you try to find the the common ground and uh and the things that we align on, like like keeping the streets safe, keeping it active, um, and giving reasons for people to come.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's really, really important.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we all align on that.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: How we do that and a millennial band lineup might be a little bit uh a change for some, but um, it's like that's that's the responsibility of any CEO of any organization.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have a board that you report to.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I talk to my chairman regularly, I have a great chairman.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: His name is actually Mark Brandenburg.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: He old he owned the Golden Gate and sold it to Derek Stevens.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Good for him.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um back in the day.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And and he has all of the stories.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: He was there when when Fremont Street was uh the experience was created.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it's like any other board and any other job where you have multiple stakeholders.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: You sit, you spend time with the city.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like meet like the mob, the head of the mob families meeting together when they're all together at the table?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you are a fan and an aficionado of Las Vegas, yeah, I mean, I I have I have Derek Stevens, who uh who I absolutely love and adore.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um he has he has the three casinos.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Circa's actually not circa's there, but the shares of Fremont Streeter with Golden Gate and with um interesting uh the D, which was uh Fitzgerald's back in the day.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: I have Terry Cottle, um, who's who's who's a little more private.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love Terry.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he worked with Bill Bennett.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh he has such knowledge of the town and of gaming, and I just I just adore him too.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I I you know I'm 51, I'm still learning from these guys.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: And he owns four queens and binions.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, these are legendary properties.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the team at Boyd, I um uh Boyd has three properties: Fremont, Main Street, and the California.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have um I have Tillman Fertita's golden nugget, which was the where that's Steve Winwestone.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got a real collection of quite the eclectic mix of owners and uh you know directors, CEOs, whatever, all that.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: How often do they I know obviously no the mission is to you know for the people to have a great experience, but how often do the the board members disagree with each other, or at least uh just kind of they're not always on the same page, which is to be expected.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's it yeah, it it is it's not very often.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's you know, if you think about any board and any um it in in any vertical of any business, there's just different ways to get there.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Mostly it's you know, hey, how much should we market, how much should we spend, how much entertainment should we do?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's things like that.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And in 2026 as a CEO, you can't always go with um your gut and this is what worked.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you got to bring data, you gotta bring uh it's all about the analytics now.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I've I learned that at MGM or working with a few private equity companies that have bought and sold casinos.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: But what that's what I like about, and I think honestly, if I'm a customer, yeah, that's what I love about downtown because you have you have Derek, it's his money.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have Terry, it's his they're owners.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the there's not um even Tillman, who owns Golden Nugget, you know, there's not a lot of private equity.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's Boyd.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like they they own, they operate, they live, they care about their people.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and to me, that really that really provides it's an overused word, but the authentic experience, but it truly is.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: You I've watched I've watched Derek um made a parade, watched him engage with these customers that are coming down to our show, people coming up to thank him, thank us for the show, and he engages with everyone.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: He is.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I can count on one hand, um Terry being another one, I can count on one hand where those uh Michael Gunn, uh Kenny Epstein at at El Cortez, um uh you know it's a short list where the people who are this is this is their business, they're there.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the majority of our customers love that.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It shows that.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: It shows for sure.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: We had Jonathan Jostle on, and he would when he was the youngest uh to get a uh unrestricted gaming license, I believe it was.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and at the time he didn't have much, but when he applied for the the gate the gambler, the gaming license, you know, it's it's a deep, deep dive.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And for him, he said it was easier because he didn't have you know much at the time.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned you were you applied to get your gaming license for Luxor, is that right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and and for Virgin, I just went through it again in um 2023 when we took over the casino from Mohegan.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: How in depth was that for you?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Very, yeah, very um, I think that's the one thing there's a little bit of mystique around getting a casino license.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I by the way, I love Jonathan.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out Jonathan.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out Jonathan.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he and I caught up last week.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I did his podcast, is great too.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: But um it is very in-depth.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, anyone I shouldn't say anyone can get it.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: You just you have to be able to want to do it, provide your information.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I went back as far as um it was back to almost everything since I was 18 years old.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm I'm I'm 51.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and so the last time I went, and by the way, the gaming control board in and and the gaming commission in Nevada, and I've worked with other states and other jurisdictions, I mean Nevada's the gold, the gold standard.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: They they just they they they are they are fair, they are thorough, they expect um they expect excellence, and I just I love working with them um because they made the process a little bit easier, but they they investigate and um the integrity of gaming is so important to the state and to um certainly all three million people who live here in Las Vegas and they keep that standard high.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, I went through it, and that's I I I I could prove to my wife, I go, see, I was I I was approved by the gaming commission.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm they told me I'm a decent guy, honey.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: All is well in the world.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's so funny.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're very well spoken.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can see why you're so successful, is because you have the right words to say, you have the right answers all the time.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you, Cliff.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's the only skill in life I've got, you know.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Go find that out quickly here.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: But um it's all a facade, other than the fact that you can talk your way out of anything.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Love that feeling right.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um you mentioned one of the overused words of the authenticity thing, which is it it definitely is is overused, but it's still very important.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things that so many guests that we have on they say what they look for in people they want to work with or businesses is the authenticity of it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um another word that does get used a lot is value, especially here in Vegas.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Value is such a big deal here.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont Street experience, downtown still has, you know, you you can still go there and not spend a fortune.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: You you can have a great time there, get some good values, get some good deals, whatever it is, and still go home not feeling like you got robbed.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the strip is definitely becoming more expensive, and they're trying.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're you know, the free parking thing for locals is you know starting to become a thing, and you know, there are deals every now and then.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: But do you feel that with the question I have is people don't look at the don't look at downtown and say, Oh, I'm not getting a value there.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: They look at the strip and they though they might say, I'm not I'm probably not gonna get value there.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Does that create more opportunity for you down for you guys on Fremont Street to uh say, hey, we have value here.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can you know get your money's worth here if the strip is still you know getting all the bad, not bad press, but at least you know negative feedback.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the headlines are real, and uh the short answer is yes.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And one of one of my favorite quotes, and this is when I was at the very high-end luxury segment with Mandarin Oriental.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: So this is not my quote, but my favorite that I take with me is price is only an issue in the absence of value.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I believe that at the very, very high end, and I believe that at the at the middle and entry level, um, if people don't feel they're getting their money's worth, they're gonna hear about it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And downtown has some wonderful, expensive places.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Berries is one of my favorite restaurants.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Berries, I would put up, I hope they don't kill me.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but um it's a it's an expensive restaurant.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it's but it's the value is there because you have great service, you have a great environment, and the food quality, so it's there, the value is there.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think what most people don't know about downtown is there's a lot of there's a lot of price points, there's a lot of options.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is still the word value.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Downtown's only about um uh buffet at Main Street is an incredible value.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there are options, and I do believe, even from a gaming standpoint, if you walk into the strip on a Saturday night, you're gonna find tables$25 and up.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: You have$10 tables, um uh paying three to two for blackjack as an example.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: You have that on Fremont Street.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so the money goes farther.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can have a little more fun, uh, you can hear great live music at any point, you can go in and out, sure, and you're not paying, you're not overpaying for drinks and things like that, and there's different price points.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: So as long as we're providing really, really good entertainment, um, people will spend at the tables, we'll spend on the outdoor bars as well, and um, and then it's up to them what restaurants, but there's a lot of options in the restaurant portfolio that um that meet a lot of needs.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the surprise, I think, is that there's a lot of different price point points.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I absolutely believe that downtown is is the is the best value, and especially now that you have gaming, essentially a two-hour drive from anywhere in 48 states now, except for Hawaii and Utah, you can go anywhere and game.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so that's where our value, our experience under the canopy, being in Las Vegas, um, that's an experience that you cannot recreate.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um in some of these, quite frankly, some other wonderful casinos that are around around the country.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have to compete on more than gaming.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think anyone, anyone that lives here or or has vacationed here before, I think we're all aware that over the last couple of years we've seen an unfortunate downturn in tourism just because of the economy.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: But is the value that you guys are able to offer over at Fremont Street and the Fremont Street experience?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Have y'all been able to mitigate some of the downturn in tourism because of what you're able to offer at the price points that you can?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas I feel like you go to the strip and it all feels expensive unless you know maybe you want to stay at the Excalibur or you know, you some of the other properties that have lower price points.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I guess have you guys been able to avoid such a drastic dip where some other properties have seen it?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and part of that is, and again, with the different price points, like Circa, I mean, Circa's not inexpensive either.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: They're sold out every weekend, yeah, even with this this somewhat downturn.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and it's about we really want to educate the consumer.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, four of Queens remodeled their rooms.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they spent over 24 million uh very recently.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great product at a really, really good price.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, those are two hotels, uh, well, um, the the rooms at Binion's at the Apache and the Four of Queens, there's no resort fee.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: It it there never has been.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like when you talk about value, and Terriel put that in in all of his restaurants, you know, it's you include sides, you include bread, you yeah, it's people really walk out going, oh my gosh, I got value down here.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, the answer to that question is is yes, but it's almost that you can't market it enough.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can't I'm I'm I'm constantly, I say, banging the drum about value.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's there, and and you see it.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: You see it in in our surveys and our data, you see it in our in our nine member property um casino guest feedback.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: They know that the value is there.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it doesn't mean cheap.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: There are lower price points for sure, but they're getting value.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's the really important thing.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: People people leave Fremont because we'll see it.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: They can extend by another night.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they can do some crazy things like the zip line or whatever, or uh, you know, slotzilla, yeah, but they'll um they'll have fun, they can get another drink there versus oh my gosh, I just spent$30 for a double cocktail on the strip somewhere, and uh and now I feel tapped out.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: When Fort Queens does something like renovate their rooms or whatever, do they ever need approval from the Fremont Street Experience, or is it they just do what they want and they tell you that they're doing it?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh if it's inside their walls, they do it and we support them.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: If it does touch the street, we do have to approve it.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it is still a public city street.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and Fremont Street Experience was created uh to essentially manage the street on behalf of the city.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, yeah, if they change their bars or anything front facing, they uh they uh we have to get approval from Fremont Street.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, as does as do other non partners down there, things that touch the street or are viewable of the street.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And look, we believe in um the very libertarian view.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: We believe in economic freedom and we want to look, we want everybody to win down there.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because that we think that's good for the town.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: But but certainly if I was coming from California or from Nebraska, I I would make I would make my next trip to downtown just to experience that old Vegas and something different.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because we should be honest, the the strip has gotten a little watered down with um a few major owners of these of the companies, if you will.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: The individualism, the character, and just again the history.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can't recreate the history, and everyone should experience that at least once.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about Fremont Street that that kind of uh drew you into it?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because six six months ago you came on board.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about that you're like, you know what, I'm I want to take this challenge on, or I see the potential there?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's you know plenty of potential down there, is it's gonna continue to grow.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: But is there something specific that you were like, oh, I like this, I I want to be a part of that?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think a lot of it was um I know a lot of people were going for the role, and I I got a lot of warnings about, well, well, you know, you know, it's it's uh it's it's a tough board, or you gotta deal with the city.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um I have two different city council women on one on the north side, one of the south.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was wow, you have a lot of stakeholders, you may not be able to get everything done that you want to do.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I have not found that to be the case at all.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody, everybody is without exception, is incredible to work with.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're they're they're different, they have maybe different views on on the street, but um, you know, we're we're also all we're all American and we're all we're all Las Vegans and and Nevadans, which is also really important.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we align on that.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: We align on what we think is best for Las Vegas.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Again, different ways maybe to get there, but um without exception, I have um Councilwoman Summers Armstrong on the north, the north side of the street.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people don't know this because this is city of Las Vegas.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So this is everything north of Sahara.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was certainly a mystery to me.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't as educated about our true city and how the city operates.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then I have mayor pro tem the uh city councilwoman Diaz on the south side.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And they're they're different, but we all share the same passion for freedom of speech and for public safety.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we align on all that.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: So whether it's how to have more security around an event like First Friday, which we have done successfully, or how to um evolve, which we're going through right now, and an evolution with our city ordinance for our wonderful um the buskers, which to me is part of the Fremont Street experience.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we all really work together, everyone listens.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can go, I mean, we we could we could go make an appointment and go see Shelly, the mayor of Las Vegas, as you could with Carolyn and Oscar.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't know too many other cities where you can just do that or pick up the phone or text somebody like that.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's what makes this town great.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm a huge champion of the um of the city of Las Vegas.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that is still a mystery, certainly to the 40 million visitors, but even to some of the three million who live here.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly with me.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I knew Clark County Commission from working and and doing all these wonderful things, but the city is a whole nother um avenue to navigate, and I really enjoyed that because the people, again, without exception, are incredible.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: You there are so many points that you brought up there now.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I have so many questions on it, but I want to make sure I stay on track because otherwise we're just gonna go off on a tangent.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: I do it all the time.
• 25:35
  unknown: Yeah.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you mentioned about the entertainers on um uh up and down Fremont.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's obviously been in the news a lot with either how the system works or how it's uh maybe broken or how it's it's working fine, whatever.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: What's your viewpoint on the entertainment on Fremont Street and how it's set up currently?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want I I want I want to enhance it.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: I also want to make it safe and and respect the freedom of speech.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And making it safe is um you know making it available so the people who really want to perform can.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: And what's what's happened is you have some performers with over 100 licenses or um or entries into trying to perform and get a circle.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: You also have, and this is true, we found this out, there's an underground mafia of selling circles and excluding some and um including others who probably shouldn't be there.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so we want to make it fair for the you know, there was a public hearing about this, and old and over 50, I think, wonderful entertainers, people who really do things that are fun, that engage with our visitors, uh, they do very well at that, they they do very well financially at that.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, they came to the hearing to talk about that.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And most of them said they would like to pay a fee to be able to make sure that the integrity of the system is there.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that's what we're trying to tackle with this um the change in the ordinance is to make it fair, make it safe, give people the right to perform how they want.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh, but um, but again, make it make it safe more than anything else.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of safety, how would you feel free on street experiences currently, and what would you like to improve on when it comes to the safety?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think I think it's always something that we can improve, and it's tied into a lot of big issues that all cities have homelessness and the unhoused, um, uh mental illness, addiction, anything that a big urban city I I come from San Francisco, and so you know it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I um I I grew up with it in the 70s and 80s in the tenderloin, and um, and then in you know, having lived in New York City for a decade, and so I mean, you people can see the news and read headlines, they see what goes on.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: We have a very engaged city who's trying to do something about it.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, there'll be some more facilities opening in the next few years, but there's there's a crisis stabilization center right now, which is out near Nellis, where if somebody's having a real um episode, they could be a harm to them to themselves or others.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: We can actually take them there.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a it's um it's a humane way of of of treating individuals who have some serious issues.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, these are not um mothers of children who are out on the street, these are people who have refused or or certainly don't want to participate in any of the the the uh services that we as a city or a county or state have to offer.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so um they need a different level of care and attention.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we approach it from whether it's our incredible sheriff and the LVMPD, um, the Department of Public Services or Public Safety, and that's the Marshals, who are also wonderful.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's agencies that are there primarily to help people, but um, I do think that's the biggest um opportunity, and I think it's gotten a lot better.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we still have ways to go.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I think some of these facilities that are coming on um can help people, but as you know, there's some people you just can't help.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be a challenge.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you walk up and down uh Fremont?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, every day.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Multiple times every day.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: I walk it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I walk it with our security, I walk it on my own, I walk it with my team.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's always that's the fun thing, is even for me who walks it several times a day, yeah.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's always something to see.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when I get there at, you know, if I have a meeting with the city like I do this Monday, I'm there in the office at 8 a.m.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: on a Monday.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's very different than a concert Saturday night at 9.30 at the height of a concert, which is very different than 3 a.m.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so um that's again just like a casino, it's 24-7.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, a casino, if somebody really messes up or is causing a problem, you could trespass them.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, on a city street, can't exactly do that unless they're really doing something wrong.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's it's it's a it's a challenge, but it's one that I'm uh I'm very thankful for.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I've very I'm very proud of when people go, What you're the CEO of a street, uh, you know, the the only thing that people can compare it to is like Bourbon Street or Times Square.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: But even then, they don't Times Square has the volume, but um, you know, we've like I said, half of all Las Vegas visitors uh come down to that street.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: So funny.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's important they have a good time.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: I had a question about what you just said.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: What is your favorite time of day or week, you know, favorite day of the week, favorite time of day to walk up and down the Fremont Street experience?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's weird.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a that's a great question.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm I've always liked not too early in the morning because they're still the night crawlers are still.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I like I've always liked whether it's the hotel, the casino, I like it first thing in the morning when it's quiet.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: You get to walk, you get to think.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: The customers are typically in their hotel room sleeping or doing whatever they're doing, uh, which which which is part of the fun.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: But um, you get to think about okay, this is point A.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: What can I do?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I used to love it, you know, when I opened uh Mandarin Oriental New York 23 years ago on a Sunday morning at 7 a.m.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because I lived in that hotel for the first six months to stabilize it, but I'd watch the sunrise come up, and it was New York was just quiet, Central Park.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: There was like two people out on the street.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's the same here.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have that same feeling when I come in on a on a on a Monday morning when it's just quiet and it's the ride isn't operating yet, and you're like, okay, what is this gonna be?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then you look out your window five hours later and it's teaming with people.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so just how that evolves and resets every day um is uh is pretty pretty fascinating.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I like I like early morning when it's quiet.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: What time do you wake up in the morning?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: I am a right now, I'm a 5 30 guy.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to work out.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Don't laugh.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: My wife's gonna go really rewind that in that.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I am, but I am.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I have uh I'm moving my son to college on uh later this week.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have a daughter who has a um, she has her learning or permit.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: So she's driving me to school, then we'll switch seats, and so she'll have her license.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations, you got your hands full.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: I got my hands full, yeah.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but they're the they're the best.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: And these are kids, I watched them grow up in Vegas.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: This is the other thing that I'm very pro about.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is the best city to raise a child a child in.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's I get looks from all people all over the world.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's affordable, there's no state tax.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, you can keep your kids from the strip if you want.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's a beautiful place to to to raise children.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: But there's also you can teach them a little bit or a lot of bit about real life here, too.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I grew up in San Francisco.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was, you know, Broadway and the condor and and all that when I was a kid.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: My eyes wide open.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: But it's um, we're not raising no one um in in this valley is raising um naive children either.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, I think it's actually an easier place because of the cost to raise children too.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's well said.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: Do your kids like Fremont Street?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: Do they ever go?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my daughter and her friends just rode the road slot zill, and they had a great time.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, they I I I um I tell them to come down when they're 21.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's usually that's a bet that's a better better age for them to come down.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: We'll all go out when they're 21.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll throw the party.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I love they like it.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's so funny.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you you touched on entertainment, at least music every night.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Every night.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like so you and the three of us could go down to Fremont tonight, and and it and it's not just free music.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just free live music, yeah.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's quality bands.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: Alter Ego, Dr.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Rock, we have Zoe Bowie sometime, bands that people know, uh, Tony Marquez band.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, these guys they put on you watch people, they don't even know they're gonna be out there.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: They have a beer in their hand, they stop, they listen, and then they start dancing, and then they stay.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this is free.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Our enterprise pays for this um entertainment, so it's quality entertainment.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have our downtown rock series.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so next Saturday, we have um story of the year, um, so little rock emo.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have protege in September, which is reggae.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: We have some country coming, and then we have um the used, which will be a big show October 10th.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Huge show, yeah.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that kind of ends the series, but then we go right into Halloween, Hoe Down.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: We have Neon City in in November, New Year's Eve.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're working on our lineup now.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, but it's every night of the week.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're here for a convention, yeah, Monday, Tuesday, come down to Fremont Street.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you're here for the weekend, Friday, Saturday, come down and see the party and be part of the party.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the other overused word that I like to um uh rag on is immersive.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's Fremont.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: You have live music, you have a canopy, it's a linear sphere everywhere.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you you are immersed.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so um that's every night on Fremont's love that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: What do you look for when it when it comes to choosing the entertainment?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh whether it's local, whether it's a little bit of a larger band.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you look for in terms of who you pick and choose when it comes to having them perform on Fremont?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think the first thing is um, you know, can they really play and perform?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because the key to 20 million is playing songs that you know.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we've evolved that as well.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the first thing we look for is the quality of musicianship and you know, what do they play?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: And on three stages, you can have rock, country, RB, grunge.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like we it's really cool.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but we've we really I'm a big fan of our entertainment community here, a huge fan.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think most of them will tell you that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: And um and we created a thing called First Street Originals.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: So on First Friday, we have one stage dedicated to all originals.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not covers.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it we've had some killer bands from Count 77, Box.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh we've had some really cool local bands.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so our ability to do that is it is a way to, I don't want to say give back because you know we're we're we're we're but we're promoting the local talent here, and that's all original music, and I think that's a really cool thing.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh any chance we can get to put there's so many talented people in this city, and any chance we can get, whether it's showcasing them on the show or showcasing them in Fremont or showcase or just going to support their shows, whatever it is.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um we had uh Woody Woody Jarrett, uh, who is uh president or owner of uh buyer entertainment, and he's putting on Frenzy Fest at the Palms.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, all local bands uh that and I I adore that.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's so it's so much fun.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the fact that we can get uh a stage, whether it's this part of town, that part of town, wherever, uh, and get these incredible talented people on there and get more eyes and ears on them because there are just an incredible amount of talent in the city.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I I wish they I wish more people knew about the incredible people that we have here because the advocacy is growing for it too.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like I mean, from from Cliff to Woody, and I think we've had other people on the show that I can't remember exactly who right now, but whether it's the artists, the entertainers, the the chefs coming up, so many people are willing to stand behind them and be like, you're from Vegas, you're making Vegas better, let's showcase you.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um and I I think it's it's our responsibility, but that's also what the customer is looking for, is that that legendary entertainment.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think somewhere along the way, with our you know, the the the corporate evolution of the town, it was well, if that doesn't make money on its own, we we can't do that anymore.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of, no, this is a thing that draws people down, and and that's a difference with Fremont Street.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: I really respect what they're doing at the Palms.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was it's a great idea that they have.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and that's exactly what we do every night of the year with um with free life with free live music.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I I respect that, and I think um I think that's one important thing to the future of the town, too, that the customer knows that they can get it.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's part of their overall experience.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well said, yeah.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you guys launched this.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we talked about value, we talked about promotions.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: You guys launched this license to fly deal for Nevada residents.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a pretty huge deal down at uh Slotzilla, right?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: It is, yeah, it's 35% off.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: We've never done a locals discount before, so we asked ourselves a question, and um it would to be honest, it wasn't my idea that my incredible marketing team brought it.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, yeah, let's why why we have to do this.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing that we did, we were very um intentional about this, is it's not Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: to six seven days a week.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: All you come down Saturday night at 2 a.m.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: at peak time and still get the discount.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted um, you know, use it when you want to.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's part of the community, and it's part of what's what helps us pay for all this other uh you know entertainment because we provide the entertainment for free, but it is certainly not free.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, excuse me.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's somebody's paying for it.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of the um economic engines that helps us um keep Fremont Street going.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Have you done that?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Done the ride.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: See, I can't lie.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: I've not done it yet.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've not done it.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's a horrible thing to say.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna call you out on this.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: You totally didn't be watching interviews with you doing research on you.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: You said you had 90 days to get on Slotzilla, and you still have not done it, Cliff.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I meant six months.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh um I'm wearing a suit today, otherwise I'd go.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: What my my wife did it with with my daughter, she's like, Are you coming?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm still in my suit.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: I need no, I need I need to do an action.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: Scared of heights?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: What is it?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, I just literally haven't done it yet.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: And um and uh I think it's we should do it together, is what I think.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm all for it.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm all for it.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can we expect more promotions similar to that coming up on Free Mont Street Experience?
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've got some creative things.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: We just launched a cool one with Circa with Stadium Swim, um, you know, arguably the best pool in Vegas.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um call this zip to dip.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you ride it, you saw that you ride the you ride the the ride all the way down, which gets off right in front of in circa, yeah, and then get a uh you know discounted admission to um to circa swim.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: So fun things like that, and and the customers really responding to it.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, our next big challenge is okay, what's the next slot Zilla?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I'm working on the next you know, the next few years.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: Any ideas you can share yet?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: Anything in the tons.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm open to all ideas right now.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: But everything on the table has you know$30 million price.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that sounds about right.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but in in all in all fairness and in all seriousness, that is something that we we talk about all the time.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: We take the business of fun, the business of Vegas, and and Derek does, Terry, everybody downtown.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: We take it very seriously.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um programming that um, even the the level of entertainment and the quality and the diversity of it, um, but is you know, what is the next attraction that's gonna bring people down?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: We spend a lot of time, a lot of research.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're well obviously we watch locally.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: We'll give a shout-out to Area 15, what they've done.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but um, but other markets from around the world, and Vegas is used to bringing things that don't exist.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's important to remember.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to, oh, let's do the this version of this, yeah, the sphere, you know, game changing.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so um we we even slotzilla, small footprint with a long linear line.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we we we have to continue to be innovative down there.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Where, I mean, because Fremont Street is pretty built out already.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where would you have wiggle room to do anything new there?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really good point because it yeah, part of that with the history is it's it's filled in.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there is uh I call it a development opportunity on Third Street, which is part of us.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: So between um kind of between our canopy and the mob museum, um shout out mob museum who's fantastic.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: I we we do love them.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and uh we we all, you know, at the end of the day, the high tide lifts all boats, and so working together is really important.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: But there's opportunity, it's not a huge space, but there's some there there's ideas we have.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, we'll we'll we'll be ready for them.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, whenever you whenever you feel like you're ready to announce it.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: If listen, if you want to break the news on the hey big head show, that's fine by me.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to twist my arm.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're it's okay.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: We'll we'll have breaking news whenever that decision is made.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do it live.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're doing it live.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um listen, you've been here for 14 years, like you said.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you've been a very important part of where the city is today.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: You've had your hands in a lot of big cookie jars from you know, MGM, Fountain Blue, Virgin.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: How has Vegas changed from the early 2000s to where it is today, and where do you see it going to next?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great question.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think the I think the opportunity of Vegas has become really since uh since the late 70s, early 80s.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you can't use it across the board, but the word greed it's just come to mind.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you had a lot of people coming in, cashing out, leaving, um, and and leaving, you know.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: It hasn't been it hasn't been an easy evolution.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it has been incredible.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when you think about the vision to create Bellagio, you know, who would put water on the lakes on prime real estate like that.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, Steve did.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, so I I I think we need visionaries, we need people to take, we need people to take great risks.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: The sphere, monster risk, yeah, the whole town is benefiting off the sphere, in my opinion.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I watched it.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: I watched it when the Backstreet Boys came.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: Our hotels were filled with everybody wearing white.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: And because of that uniform, um, you could tell, and I asked them because they some of them were my customers, they wouldn't have been in town without that.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so we need to keep doing that.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: Sports, I think, is a great thing.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know it can be a little controversial, but sports has done wonders for this town.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: We arguably pulled off the best Super Bowl in Super Bowl history, and uh, Super Bowl will be coming back, and again.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: And again and again.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: Baseball on the horizon, NBA not too far behind.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have to keep doing those things.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I I really firmly believe in the old school, the nostalgia about your host knowing what you drank.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, not not these massive lines for check-in, um, but that that personalization, another kind of overused term, but people do it really well, especially when they do it naturally.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so uh I I I I think there'll be some throwbacks.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where I think down that was why I was really excited about downtown.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you see it with restaurants.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: Look at Golden Steer.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Golden Steer might be in their best time ever.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, 10, 15 years ago, it wasn't as popular as it is today, but social media, the you know, your coal drinks, uh, you know, your coal martinis being poured, um, you know, Sinatra's table, things that like really millennials, Gen Z, I I I don't I think my son is 18.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if he's Gen Z or not.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever their label is.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go with it, sure.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: They they want an experience that they can't have anymore because the days of Elvis and Sinatra are gone.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so, how can we create that to give them a sense of that?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's really important.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: And downtown just screams.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're providing that today.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: I dare go go into Berry's, go into the Vic and Anthony's of the golden nugget, go into the top of binions, um, and and you're getting you're you're getting a truly old school experience that people really like and they're filming and they're putting online.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so um I think we'll have a little bit, what comes around goes around again in this town as well.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: While conventions still grow, which is great, and while sports still come to town, but um that authentic Vegas feel, only we can deliver that.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it's so fun to see Derek walking the floor or Jonathan Jostle down there walking the floor.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so many of our like other uh friends with a few influencers here in town, they all say nothing but great things about Jonathan.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and Jonathan knows that.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jonathan will, you know, exchange pins with them or you know, tell them stories, or be like, hey, how's this?
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how's how's the thing going since the last time we spoke?
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like they are very personal, and you can that's what makes the difference of these uh CEOs and and and these these casino owners is they they have that personal touch and that that old school vibe.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Jonathan was a father figure was you know Oscar, uh Mayor Oscar Goodman.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, obviously Mayor Oscar Goodman was uh still is you know a old school type of guy, and Derek Stevens, a very old school type of guy.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: So those old school values make a huge impact in who how you are represented today, um, regardless if you know it or not.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that's that's I feel like that's a secret to success right there, is the old school personalization.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh 100%.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: I fully agree.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: And my story with that is when I got to town, I saw I was general manager of Madrin Oriental Las Vegas.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Bill Macbeth, who's well known in town, was my first boss.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then he he left before Cosmopolitan, and then I had um I got Bobby Baldwin.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and um and I was like, yeah, okay, I'm I'm learning from the best.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I knew that coming from out.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: I I quickly picked up on it.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm slow but trainable.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I got that one.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: But we did an event with Oscar, and this is 2014.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: He's still mayor.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I was pretty excited to meet him because I knew who he was.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this is a small town where I actually did meet him and got to know him.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, um, and uh, but this is the first time I'm meeting him.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so beautiful Mandarin Oriental.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're on the 23rd floor, and this is 11 o'clock in the morning, and he was doing, I forget exactly the event, but he was meeting someone and he was, you know, being being the mayor.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so he rolls in with two showgirls, like great.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then we get his writer about his um his jalapeno um martini.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and I go, this is BS.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is there's water in that.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's 11 in the morning.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: Nope.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: Full martini, drank the whole thing.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I go, this is this.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: I right then I'm like, I'm never leaving this town.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like this guy is this is this is the mayor at 11 in the morning on like a Tuesday.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it was true, and it goes back to the authentic.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: The guys who live the best operators, they love the business so much as I do.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um they think like they're customers.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where an analyst in a room who's never who's never done a lineup with you know a hundred guest room attendants to get them pumped to clean hotel rooms every day, or has been there at 2 a.m.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: when his customers, you know, asking for more money or whatever it might be, um, or asking for other crazy things.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, the people who who really love it live it.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's the key.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you go all the way back to old school, all those guys.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when I got to town, that the the old school guys who would go to their kids' games like I'm doing tonight, and then they would go back to their casinos and they go back for the 10 o'clock shift.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and it wasn't work for them.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: They they lived it.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: They lived it, it's part of it.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Jonathan does that, Derek does that.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, uh, and even um, you know, a bigger company like Boyd, yeah, um, the same thing.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're they're you know, they're public companies, so it's a little different, but but they run their operations, they're in their properties.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Cindy, who runs the golden nugget for um uh for Tillman, you know, huge you know, huge organization.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: He's trying to take as we as we as we do this show, he's trying to take over Caesars right now.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, Cindy runs her ship.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so that that's really, really important.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um and uh that's that was my biggest takeaway coming to town, which is which is the that's the whole genesis of hospitality, is taking care of people and being there when you're needed.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I like about you is no matter how much experience you have, you're still a sponge.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: You take in information from people that are more experienced than you or or just are are different on on different you know paths than you, but you still you continue to learn no matter how well versed you are, no matter how much you know how many years you've been in in the game for.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that's so important.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um be a sponge still at 51.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think you have to.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: I I I from one of my greatest mentors is who in his 80s now, or even with Richard Branson, um, even though Virgin didn't own the Virgin here, um, but as a licensee, I got to do Richard a little bit.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and you know, he's in his 80s, written his books, done all that.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: He'll tell you he's still learning.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm learning about just AI.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great buzzword, but what are we really doing with it?
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I'm waking up every day, like it's just a tool like everything else.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but but there's that, and um and that constant I learned I learned a lot from my kids.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so um yeah, it's key.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Julie's got a quick gift for me.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: All this talk about Oscar.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: Last time I went into Oscars, Jonathan gave me this hat where it what does it say?
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: It says Oscar Goodman 2028.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right here.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: If he ever runs for president, he's got my vote right then.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, I I don't I don't I think he should win a hundred percent.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love the fact that he got elected as mayor, and then his wife right after got elected as mayor, too.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I brought my father-in-law to meet them at one of Jonathan's dinners.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they were so gracious.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I don't know if I can talk about this, but I will.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: Please do.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: But but like when she was on Anderson Cooper, yeah.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: That yes, and I remember watching it going, she's right though.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: She's right.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: And now what history has told uh has has proven out everything to be, she was right.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um, she took a lot of heat for that, but back-to-back mayors and Shelly too.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: Shelly's incredible.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh out there, her energy, she was just at a ribbon cutting for the poker room for golden nugget.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, these you know, the mayor of Las Vegas is is up there in terms of visibility, like mayor of New York.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in tur you you're you're an ambassador.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're and they we have three incredible who who've lived it and who've done it, and they've all done it for the betterment of the city.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um we we owe them, I think, a world of of um gratitude and perpetuity, I'll say.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like they we can't thank them enough.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: How how lucky are we that we get a chance to have to be in this city where so much can you know so much history can change.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like this doesn't happen in Cleveland, Ohio, or anything like that.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: It only Vegas.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: Only Vegas does this happen.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm so so fortunate that we're here.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's so much fun.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's so true.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: We we we I was on a panel with Jonathan, um, Jeff Victor, Joe Woody from uh El Cortez, yeah, and and Shelly, uh Mayor Berkeley, kicked off the um kicked it off.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I I had I had to stop and I said that.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I can tell you, having worked, you know, uh having lived and worked in San Francisco, New York, yeah, the mayor doesn't come kick off the downtown, you know, alliance um like they do here.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: And she stayed for it.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_01: She stayed to hear it.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when you're like, man, this is it's a special place.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um special place to live, special place to visit, and it's um it's important we take care of it for the next, certainly the next 30 years.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be I'd be amiss if I didn't bring this up, but one of our uh partners that we work with is Boomers Sportsbook, and they're moving into Binions on September 2nd.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um are you gonna be there for the uh grand opening?
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: As a few of our VIPs, we're gonna get them over some golf carts, I think, too.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: But uh love that that that's another one, Joe Asher.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a huge fan of, and I'm a huge fan of Boomers.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I actually wanted to work with them in my last my last opportunity.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's another podcast.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I Joe gets it.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: Joe created William Hill and ran that and sold that to Caesars.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um Joe knows his customer, he knows his employees, he knows the game, especially sports betting.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I think we'll see whatever's happening with the prediction, you know, shake out a little more.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_01: But um uh I'm a huge fan of Joe.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he surrounds himself with some people that know their shit too.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Joe's old school, he can he knows the game, like you said, and that's his that's a secret for success.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a sports better, if if you're not betting with Joe at Boomers or Derek at Circa, what are you doing?
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: What do you what are you doing?
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have the the best odds, best lines, the most engagement.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I mean, that's if you're a true player, that's that's where you need to be.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well said.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a few more questions, we'll get you out of here.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're a busy man doing busy things here.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um where'd you do that?
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is fun.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are great.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a is there a jalapeno martini in this one?
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: Julie.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, we've joked about having a bar for the guests so many times at this point that I think we should do it.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it needs to happen.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be your first one.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll get tons of I'll give you great responses.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think the best we can do right now is a white claw.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, yeah.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what did you do for your 21st birthday 30 years ago?
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was here.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was under the canopy.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we were here.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, so you would have been here right when it was 1995.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right when it opened, right?
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I'll never I had eight buddies, and uh and it was it was insane because I did everything at 21-year-old.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh as you should.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: See, I noticed that you were about to say I'll never forget it, but you stopped yourself short.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: I I I did.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's a professional.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of those things that I think it came up during my gaming license.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, did I do that in 95?
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so yeah, I'm I'm I turned 52 this year, uh, born in 74, total gen X, or in every every sense of the word.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was a latch key kid at 10.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I probably still act like I'm I'm in my 20s, just ask my wife, um, uh versus versus my 50s.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: But um uh yeah, this is where you came to celebrate.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I also get very passionate about that.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: Nashville.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was just in Nashville for my sister-in-law's wedding.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I married them.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was the minister.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: How about that?
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, it was incredible.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I watched, I watched, you know, 11 in the morning.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: Nashville is going off.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: Broadway is going off.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so I came back, we talked to Derek and Jeff and a few people about how we uh we need to start some of our stuff even earlier in the day.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um because this is the town you should come to party.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is where everybody should come for 21.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone should come to their bachelor, bachelorette party, divorce party, whatever.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: Weddings, the weddings coming back again.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like this is the town for that.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I did.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh then last question we we love asking this.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: We asked Jonathan this, and he uh he gave us a great answer.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_00: So many people are are had their hands in making Vegas what it is today, all the way back to Bugsy Seagull, all the way back.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: Give me your Mount Rushmore of who made Vegas what it is today, if you can.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's four.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: Four.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely will.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um take your time.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_01: Or I I I should have prepared for this.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and it I I I hope this isn't controversial and it shouldn't be.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_01: I've talked to my friend Scott Vital Vegas about this.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_01: But um uh Steve Wynn.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_01: I he ha it he has to be number one.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't think that the town would have um evolved.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: Bellagio is my the example that I gave earlier.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um Steve for sure.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um his his properties, he's not even involved in them anymore, and they're still the go-to spots here in Vegas when it comes to the strip.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like Bellagio is still this you know world-renowned casino, the win encore.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: Win and Encore are far and above anything.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I fully agree.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and so that's culture, that's ethos, that's it's in the DNA.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_01: They replace that carpet every six months, no matter what, versus some on the strip.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I can say this, just walk in there, the electrical tape starts going down.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we can't afford it, we can't do this.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_01: The relentless reinvestment in the property.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I learned that from from Bobby Baldwin, who learned it right from Steve.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm only one generation away from that.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and there's still operators who work directly for Steve who are who are in the market for sure.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm not saying this because he's on my board.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think you gotta put Derek on.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I do mean that because he's he's the future.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_01: He put he there's over a billion dollars of investment in downtown, and downtown would not be the same with with um without him.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I think you have to put him on.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_01: So he's he's the modern um uh and uh and then I think you gotta put Michael Gaughan on, who's still walking his property every day, and there's still ties to downtown for him.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm a Michael Ghan girl.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: She loves Michael Goghan, Julie loves Michael Ghog.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I I I feel the same.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and so that's why again, I'm I gotta limit it to four.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I know it's tough.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I got Steve, Derek, Michael Gaughan, and um, you know, I'd like to I can see the wheels turning.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can see the steam coming out of your ears.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a lot of people who've done a lot of good.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody will take offense.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like a like a Terry Lani, and uh he might be a runner up, but what I mean what he's done, Kirk Akorian, like what what they've done.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um that the town wouldn't be Jay Sarno, but I but I would probably put Benny Bignon in.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: Would you?
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: Benny Binion.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_01: I would, because there's so many things that probably wouldn't exist, including the highest limits in town at the time.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he put World Series of Poker together, but I think that would be you know, these strong individuals.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta shout out, you know, um Kurt and uh and Terry Lanney, but uh but those would be my I'd be Steve Wynne, Derek Stevens, Benny Binion, and Michael Gunn.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well done.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well done.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: Julie, how do you feel about that Matt Rushmore?
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think what two of the four were the same as Jonathan.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jonathan said Michael Gunn and he said Steve Wynne.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: He said uh Oscar and he said uh uh conventions.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: Convention.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't remember who did that.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot the name, but oh Rossi.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is that us?
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe let's go with that.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, the the convention game did, you know, they they changed that.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to get to four.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: The four that like reflipped.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: Especially on the spot, especially when you weren't you weren't ready for it.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, but good answer.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: Good answer.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, again, he's a pro.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell he's a pro because he's answering the right things at the right times.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Cliff, listen, I know you're a busy guy, and I want to thank you so much for coming on.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me on.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is this this is fun.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, other than me playing this for my wife tonight, you know, listen to me.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I like to I I joke whenever I go like Ed Bernstein's show who I love.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I drive my wife crazy uh about it.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I I think I think it's important.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think what you're doing is great.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um you said you've been doing this a year and a half.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: Year and a half, yeah.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, kudos to you.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy to do this and and and rent a spin, put it on, yeah, have a team, and um, and there's a lot of people who say, go through any bar in the arts district, like, oh, I'm gonna start a podcast.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody has a podcast.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: You you you've done it.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_01: I just like to appear and have a conversation, have some uh jalapeno martini, and then next next time you can next time you come back.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever the the big announcement is for what's what's next at Fremont Street Experience, is you're gonna come back, you're gonna announce it here on the show, and we're gonna have a jalapeno martini.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: We'll have all kinds of martinis.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll all be having martinis with you.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_00: We should not we want we'll have Oscar down too.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: Bring the showgirls, Oscar.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be shy.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_02: Bring your wife too.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: She's used to me bringing the showgirls around.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's I learned it from Oscar.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_00: I expect nothing less.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Cliff, this was great.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you coming on.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's it.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: Julie, got any last questions before we get out of here?
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: No, just thank you so much for great getting to meet you.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for reaching out.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: Really appreciate you guys.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for what you do for Vegas, too.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_03: Shout out, Vegas.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out Las Vegas.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'll catch new episodes each week on HeybigHead.com.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we're excited for this episode there because I have so many good clips from this episode that I'm gonna post about.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's gonna be good.