I am here to report that Aria, the “Crown Jewel of MGM’s 67-Acre CityCenter” has finally opened. Yes it has, and happiness spread over the land….
After five years, more than $8 billion of investment and debts, with hundreds of thousands of hours by over 9,000 dedicated construction workers as well as 12 construction workers deaths…. The doors opened to a 4,000-room Aria with a fireworks display that was actually nice to see..
Details include a 150,000-square-foot casino, Aria has the only gaming inside the CityCenter complex, two nongaming hotels, Vdara and the ultra luxury Mandarin Oriental, high-rise residential condo’s and 500,000 square feet of meeting and convention space. Plenty of of open and empty space for the visitors to marvel and gaze at.
As part of a preview earlier in the day, about 1,000 guests were treated (?) to a preview of “Viva Elvis” by Cirque du Soleil. The show that is starting to look more and more like the last Cirq show to open, “Believe.” With its continuous cast changes and production “tweaking” right up to showtime and beyond.
Aria management proudly claimed that it opened with over 80% hotel occupancy! Considering that the same day the Sahara hotel announced the closing of two of its towers due to lower winter demand. Aria forgot to mention that they only opened 400 of the 4000 rooms they have. That’s 80% 0f 10%. You just know that the MGM bean counters are drinking Exlax by the case by now.
I love the line “Aria forgot to mention that they only opened 400 of the 4000 rooms they have. That’s 80% 0f 10%. You just know that the MGM bean counters are drinking Exlax by the case by now.” So true, So true. Yea, that’s what this town needs another 7,000 empty hotel rooms. The pressure was on to open so they can ‘recoup’ the costs, but they’ll soon find out that 10,000 new employees will break the bank even more…. Too bad… It looks great though!