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I hope the social media frenzy about the Mirage Resort’s closing will die down soon, and we can move on to other exciting topics. Like, how so many people were fooled into believing some cheap sports team owner was actually going to build a stadium on the Las Vegas Strip without any financing.
As people on social media said their goodbyes and recollected their memories of staying, playing, and maybe getting laid at the resort that changed Las Vegas, very little of that revolved around the man who dared to defy the experts and build the largest; most lavish hotel and casino the world had ever seen. The man who changed Las Vegas. Steve Wynn.
Build it, and They Might Come
It’s interesting to note that up until 1989, the average casino looked like the average casino. To be different, you just added more neon to the signage and a few more topless dancers to the show.
Minus the topless dancers, that pretty much explains the design of casinos today. No thought is being put into design or trying anything to be different. Just build it, and they think you will come. They hope you will come. For no reason other than that, they are here, and you should be, too!
“Look, we spent four billion dollars on building this uninspiring hotel tower with a casino, a sportsbook, and many overpriced bar-food restaurants. Don’t you want to come out and stay here?”
Steve Wynn went the other way. He took the typical design suggestions for a hotel/casino given to him by “the experts” and did it His way! There was nothing about the Mirage that was “normal.”
For the Good of Las Vegas
The one thing that always separated Steve Wynn from the other Las Vegas casino operators was how he viewed everything. I loved seeing his interviews and hearing how he viewed the topic.
He saw that what was good for Las Vegas was also good for the Wynn Properties. Like the Mirage Volcano, what was good for the Wynn Empire was good for Las Vegas. Steve Wynn (and millions of others) saw it as a Las Vegas landmark. No matter who you were or where you lived when you saw a photo or a clip of the volcano, you thought, “Las Vegas.” and they smiled. It was good for Las Vegas and the Wynn/MGM brand.
But with the beancounters now running the asylum, they think it must go if it doesn’t pay dividends immediately. The Seminole Indians, the tribe that owns the Hard Rock brand, looked at the volcano and said almost the exact same thing. “We can’t charge for it; it has to go.”
The Wynn Way
Up until the opening of the Mirage, one of the largest hotels in the world was the original MGM Grand, with 1,000 rooms. The Mirage was going to have 3,000 rooms.
In a typical hotel-casino, the casino is on the ground floor, and the hotel rooms are in a tower formation above it. The Mirage put the casino and showroom out in front.
Steve Wynn said, “Two thousand of her 3,000 rooms reached out to the Strip beckoning and welcoming the public. Instead of neon, a garden of dozens of rich Canary Island palm trees and a cool refreshing waterfall that glistened in the hot Southern Nevada desert sun.”
Starting with the Mirage, even checking in was an experience. Arriving guests were treated to an entire wall in the lobby of live sharks swimming with hundreds of tropical fish behind the front desk and enjoying the aroma of pina colada. Makign the sometimes long wait to get your room key a little more interesting.
The Mirage was the new kid on the block, but it forever changed the block!
Vegas Changed
With the opening of Mirage, it was not gambling-centric; the entire resort was not just one big casino. This new design made people want to see the new Las Vegas. The Mirage spurred one of the largest building booms of its time. Lasting until the market crash of 2008
The Mirage also created a job boom, needing to hire almost 8,000 employees. People now wanted to work and live here. As the other resorts opened up, a job market gold rush opened up. Almost anyone could come out here, get a well-paying job, and live a nice life without needing a college education.
When I moved here, Las Vegas was a very affordable town. The jobs were plentiful. If you arrive on a Monday morning, you can have a job by Monday afternoon. It wasn’t a job you went to school for, but it paid better than what your degree paid you!
When I started chauffeuring here in 20001, I knew many valets and bellhops. I never met one who made less than $40,000 a year. Many were in the $50-75,000 range. To put that in perspective, in 2001, a nice house in a middle-class suburb was around $90-$100k. Vegas was cheap living.
This all started with Steve Wynn’s idea to build a different kind of resort in the middle of the desert. Yes, he did it with junk bonds that probably screwed a lot of old people out of their retirement funds, but got it built.
Unfortunately, with Las Vegas now being controlled by two mega-corporations and not one CEO willing to speak up for anything, the City is going backward in its designs and marketing.
With the destruction of the Mirage, we are losing one of the last remaining landmarks from the boom era, an era of overindulgence, excitement, and a feeling of opportunity for tourists and the people who live and work in this city.
The People, the Tourist, Lost
For many, the loss of the Mirage means more than just the loss of a property. It makes the loss of an era real. We had an affordable tourist destination. We had world-famous landmarks. We had a CEO, Steve Wynn, who talked as much about his resorts as he did about his love for Las Vegas and his desire for the best for the city and the people who live and work here. That is now all gone.
Yes, we will miss the Mirage and everything it meant for us and the city of Las Vegas.
Yes, we will move on. Las Vegas will survive.
Yes, I still stand by my comments that the new Hard Rock will become Circus Circus 2.0 when it opens.
So, with the closing of the Mirage, I wanted to say;
Thank you, Steve Wynn, for the memories!
Last update on 2025-01-14 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API