First, a little history: in the gladiator days of Rome, when a gladiator was to be killed the emperor would give thumbs up -- not thumbs down. But in the movies, the signal to kill the loser was thumbs down.
Now, with that piece of history stated, let's move to a contemporary issue: the future of Caesars Entertainment. In other threads several forum members including redietz and Dan Druff have pointed out some of the signs that the Caesars Entertainment empire is crumbling or is barely hanging on and is waiting for Wall Street to signal thumbs down (if you use the modern, accepted signal of death).
Redietz and Dan Druff have given some spot-on examples of some of the big problems and blunders. I thought it might be appropriate to have one thread to keep track of the news and opinion on the future of Caesars Entertainment -- thumbs up or thumbs down.
I'd like to start by offering four factors which I think are showing that Caesars is in trouble:
1. Setting up certain partnerships for certain properties and removing them from the basic Caesars Entertainment corporation -- moving them into "side corporations." The Caesars Bondholders are furious about this -- as it takes assets that could support the bonds and took them off the balance sheets. It can be viewed as a way to prepare for bankruptcy. This is the biggest sign of thumbs down if you ask me.
2. Failure to sell the Rio. Caesars wants to sell the Rio in Vegas but can't. Management has told me that there have been many companies wanting to buy the Rio but they want the Rio for the business attached to the World Series of Poker. But Caesars would move the WSOP to Caesars convention center if the Rio were sold, and that is preventing any buyer from closing a deal.
3. The High Roller observation wheel. It looks pretty, but I understand that customer traffic is only a fraction of what was expected and I was also told that the restaurants and shops at the Linq shopping area are not doing well.
4. The Octavius Tower was supposed to be the premier new hotel tower at Caesars Palace but someone forgot to look out the windows -- it has no "views" on one side of the tower and the other side has limited views. As a result, few guests want to stay there. Octavius was built when hotel occupancy slumped in Vegas. They probably never really needed it.
Those are the problems. I still think Caesars Entertainment still is the best of the casino companies with the best casinos and certainly the best hotels. I think staying in Caesars Palace is always a marvelous experience except when there is a mistake and everyone makes mistakes (like overlooking maid service for two days one New Year's weekend years ago.)
I hope Caesars survives. I hope they can turn themselves around.