Get used to it. That mammoth casino that they opened just NE of SF will be the death blow to the run down dumps in Tahoe. I supposed it’s about time for another “remodeling bombing”.

we cant look at numbers on a monthly basis, a bad winter will hurt that months numbers, the month before they were way up. since Redhawk opened, gaming here has become another ammenity, its the beauty here that is the draw, not the great new casinos.

Little snow and Native American gaming both took big chunks out of the South Shore’s business, and if you add to those factors the targeting of a very low quality visitor demographic you’ve got a 42% drop in revenue. Those classless, obnoxious people who come up with $20 in their pockets are only intent on scoring all the freebies they can get and they aren’t spending any money in our community because they don’t have any money to spend. What they’re actually doing is running out the few decent visitors who had remained loyal but have since declared that they will be going elsewhere from now on because they don’t want to be subjected to vile people. Trickle-down effect: the casinos make little money and their staff that’s dependent on tips makes almost nothing.

I don’t understand why people say we need more tourists to make more money, or that really dumb economic analogy that when “the tide rises all boats float higher”. What we need are classy, more affluent tourists with some money to spend and a lot fewer degenerates with no money. It’s called quality, not quantity.

Numbers do fluctuate. Weren’t March’s numbers up? But I do believe there is on the balance a fairly steady downward trend line.

Anyway, it’s unfortunate that Harrah’s/Harveys seems intent on taking South Lake Tahoe Gaming down with them?! I guess they enjoy having a stranglehold?

But their numbers in Tahoe are on the same steady decline as the rest of Caesars Corp. And Montbleu and Lakeside’s #’s have been doing better than the Stateline reported #’s.

Hence, to turn around this trend, a good start would be if Caesars sold off at least one of its 2 Tahoe properties to help reduce its unsustainable over $20B debt. More competition, more casinos working to get people here, would help our town!

I agree steven,4mer,cheepseat. This is hitting the nail on the head. You have to aim higher to bring in a more civil and classier clientel. Unfortunately the snow globe does not help in this effort. It only degrades the quality of life all year long for the rest of us who LIVE here as it promotes tahoe as an area to come up and be rude and crude for those with little money to spend. Talk about selling out the town for a few bucks. Its not worth it for its long lasting negative effects.

For every high-end project in the area that succeeded I can name three that failed or are currently stalled.

Also how did the America’s Cup stand up to its projections?

Thanks to the city’s lack of vision, the now non- existent convention center that was to be built at stateline, would have helped bring more business to South Lake Tahoe, especially in the shoulder seasons. Say what you want, but the opportunity to attend a convention at Lake Tahoe would have been very desirable.

Although the local casinos have been their own worst enemies over the course of the past decade +/-, it’s safe to say that the Native Americans have finally won the war. And when there’s gaming everywhere, the novelty wears off and nobody wants to gamble.

The world changes folks, and it is long overdue for the Stateline casinos to adapt or die. Their business model of 25 years ago is no longer viable.

Yep Rock,

No sarcasm, seriously, here. Agreed that it’s wrong when something is built because someone came across some $$, and there’s no planning for how the maintenance will be funded!

How that should subsequently be dealt with is where we disagree. I’m done now, totally, with the Parking topic!

Except that same point sort of pertains to this casino story. Caesars/Harrah’s borrowed over $20B to go private with no idea how it would pay it back. It’s clearly on the road to bankruptcy. Don’t know why it keeps avoiding the inevitable?

But an immediate consequence is that it has significantly cut back on its marketing efforts. (And its building maintenance.) The result is less gaming business for So. Lake Tahoe!

DougM:

“If South Shore can only accommodate those on a lower budget, then take it, or nothing.”

Are you kidding? It’s precisely that type of mindset that prevents quality in any form from taking place and has largely stunted the South Shore and kept it in its current unappealing time warp. Have you ever heard of wanting better, figuring out how to get that, and then working your butt off for it?

There are some people in this town that need to get off this hill once in a while and see what the successful resort and casino areas are doing, try to learn something new, and maybe even attempt to replicate some proven successes. We need change in this community if we want things to improve, because more of the same won’t even get you more of the same, it will get you less. With as much as the South Shore has to offer there is no reason to accept settling for garbage visitors who have no respect for our community and think it OK to trash it.

Want better, work for better, and demand better from our elected officials and from business operators on both sides of the Stateline. It’s all about quality, not quantity. If you’re willing to settle for less you’ll always have less.

if we want better tourist, we have to improve our infrastructure, ie roads, give low interest loans to business owners to improve their properties(thats the carrot, the stick is a law about poorly mantained buidings on 50, there are laws like this on books elsewhere) look at the Harrison ave project, one one owner ahs stepped up to say he will be upgrading his property(that I know of, and that is not even close to the worst one) Problem with that is that the residents of this town do not want to pay for in the form of any type of tax increase on themselves. They dont even want to pay get their own neighborhood streets repaved and upkept, we dont have to worry about out main street as Caltrans is responsible for that(50 & 89)

Interesting how the Stateline properties are the largest voice with regard to what the city should do but they have no plan to renovate their properties. Thus, their businesses continue to nosedive.

I agree the city needs to fix the way it looks including the dumpy buildings at Harrison Avenue but the casinos also need to step up. Most likely they do not see a plan for the south shore that is strong enough to warrant investment. Imagine Heavenly or Harrah’s management asking their corporations for money to improve and the board of directors then says, OK, what’s the plan for South Shore? The answer…there is no plan and no one driving the ship either. So, why should the corporate leaders provide capital for their Tahoe businesses?

Norma, Hal, Tom, Brooke, Joanne and Angela and Douglas County have shown zero leadership. No one is leading the way. How do we climb out of the dumps without someone showing us the way up. I don’t know how this gets substantially better any time soon.

Rock I believe you were referencing the tennis courts on Lyons st just around the corner of the end of Rufus Allen, adjacent to the Babe Ruth complex?

I think I remember those were a part of the school district but on city property, and when the schools walked away from maintaining them the city chose not to budget their upkeep.

I could be completely wrong on this, so I’d appreciate someone who knows that story, simply because it is an interesting eyesore with some history.

Irish, I have learned of about 10 groups myself that were interested in the last year but we did not have the meeting space to accomaidate them, even taking 2 casinos and The Lake Tahoe Resort, one was a lead of mine of about 1000 attendies with a sit down dinner presentation, all insurance agents. There is a demand just to visit the lake with gaming as a ammenity.