I was just thinking that moving the WSOP to the Strip could be the catalyst to getting the poker-themed hotel finally off the ground.

Hope it moves

CNBC was reporting this morning that Carl Icahn is putting together an investment in CET, and that’s the sort of thing that would prompt a complete revamp of WSOP and moving it from Rio

This will never happen, there's no money in it. Especially when they'd have to compete with everything else. Poker is some ancillary revenue stream way way down the food chain. It's borderline niche.

Especially considering the price of real estate and how much revenue you'd need to make it worthwhile.

Outlier casino's like the ones in CA that focus solely on cards exist cause they have no slot competition locally but the Indian casinos are all getting bigger...

https://twitter.com/VitalVegas/statu...18160083918848

Apparently the WSOP could stay at the Rio for the next SIX years. It might be offered as a concession to the new owners so that they'll have guaranteed foot traffic for seven weeks of the year. That's assuming they don't bulldoze the place. Probably just a sales tactic.

Hope it moves to strip

They guy who I know who had a group interested in the Rio is now close to buying Circus Circus he said the Rio needs way too much work.

So no new news? Just speculation? :/

Not sure if this is news, more rumors, or something else.

With all the poker players inside!

soooon

Rumor says that Carl Icahn will gain a fourth board seat on 04/15 if Caesars hasn’t found a new CEO by that time. It’s no secret that he wants for Caesars Entertainment to put itself on the market and the NY Post recently reported that’s supposed to happen as soon as next week.

Hard to imagine Caesars is selling the Rio while in negotiations for a merger? I obviously have zero inside knowledge but common sense would say that the Rio won’t be sold before those takeover discussions are settled?

No matter what, odds of the Rio still being around in 5 years are minuscule.

LasVegasLocally and VitalVegas are garbage. They put out a lot of false rumors, and occasionally hit one in a broken-clock-is-right-twice-a-day fashion.

I was the first one on the internet to post that the WSOP would likely move to the Caesars Convention Center in 2020 -- not because I had some great unnamed source, but because I put two and two together with common sense.

Turned out I was almost certainly right.

However, VitalVegas and LasVegasLocally have been talking out of their asses regarding this matter for quite some time. Remember the "Rio is going to become a Major League Baseball Stadium" rumor last year? LOL

Here's the bottom line:

The Rio has remained with Caesars because they need the large convention space -- both for the WSOP and for other big conventions. Otherwise, they would have dumped it years ago.

But since they were lacking a viable replacement, they have left the Rio in a holding pattern -- scaling down its operational and maintenance costs -- until they came up with something better.

It turned out that the "better" ended up being their brand new strip convention center, but that takes time to build, so we remain in that holding pattern.

They are NOT selling or demolishing the Rio before the WSOP is over. I'll give good odds to anyone who wants to bet me on that one.

Might they sell/destroy the Rio AFTER the WSOP?

Perhaps, but only if they are 100% sure that the Caesars Convention Center will be ready by May 2020 to house that year's WSOP.

Truth be told, they don't need to rush to sell the Rio at this point. It's not worth very much, the property is old and rundown, and the location sucks.

They might as well truly be done with it first (meaning the new convention center is operational), and then they can dump it at that point.

I'd be shocked if I was wrong about this.

I think VitalVegas is knowledgeable about certain areas, such as entertainment. Less so about business and probably relying on the knowledge of others to guess about corporate happenings. To be clear, VV reported that there was interest ing activity regarding land surrounding the Rio and clearly labeled the idea of a stadium as speculation, perhaps inspired by Rob Manfred saying Las Vegas was a viable expansion location. I don't think he said there was going to be a stadium, just that it was one idea that fit. My guess is that his report of people looking at the nearby land is accurate. The guess that it might be for a stadium may not even be his.

It has long been reported that Caesars has been looking to unload the Rio. Could these rumors be fueled by an attempt to make the property look more desirable? Maybe they are somehow related to Tilman Ferrtita, since there were recent reports of him trying for another merger with Caesars and the last round of Rio rrumors popped up around the time of his last attempt.

Soon™

I am not a contractor but driving by the site I can say there is no assurances it can be done by May or really March 2020 because they need time to set up the tables etc. Bugs, overruns occur and 2021 is a safer bet.

How long do you think it takes to put up the tables? The Pavilion Room gets filled with pool tables every year after the WSOP in a couple of days.

Did you at least stay at a Holiday Inn last night?!?

MONDAY APRIL 15, 2019 AT 7:47 PM
POKER BUSINESS
LAS VEGAS RUMORS: RIO CASINO SOLD AND IMPLODED FOR BASEBALL STADIUM OR TRAIN STATION

https://en.clubpoker.net/las-vegas-r...station/n-1065

👏👏👏

Rio has an extensive surface parking lot (and 3 parking garages) that could accommodate at train station without demolishing any stuctures.

A train station ?

XpressWest running between the Rio and downtown Victorville, running on the I-15 right of way ?

Sounds likely to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XpressWest

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/...ichard-branson

with NHL and NFL in LV, I think MLB/NBA is not far behind. 30 teams w/ interleague play is a bit awkward, and 32 should work better for divisions, interleague scheduling, and playoffs.

It is an easy air destination, and XpressWest seems intent on getting something developed to clear the path for easy travel from SoCal.

I'm not asserting MLB moves to the Rio site, but that site is as good as any other.

Fwiw, the WNBA is already in Las Vegas.