Here's the whole exchange, which begins when Ralston asks him about the remark and quotes from my L.A. Weekly story:
Murren: Honestly, I wouldn’t have gone to the spa tower if I didn’t work at MGM Mirage and Bellagio opened up the spa tower. There would be no reason for it. I wouldn’t need to. I live in Summerlin. I have a great community. I coach my kids. I have a lot of restaurants out there. If I didn't work in the resort community, I probably wouldn't come down here much. That was my point. That is my point as a counterpoint to CityCenter. I really believe it is not a casino-hotel. I really would not be upset at all if people never visit Aria that live here, but I would be upset if they didn’t try to wander around CityCenter and enjoy the environment. I think that’s something that would be enhancing to them.
Ralston: You don’t think as the CEO of the biggest employer in the valley, you should check out the competition once in a while?
Murren: I do, but you know we have great people. You called me the Father of CityCenter. You know, Jon, that we have 50,000 people working for us right now. I have the most talented men and women in management that know more about than I will ever know about casino operations, hotel operations, casino marketing, hotel marketing, I don’t need to go to every property to get an idea what’s happening.
Click on the image below to watch this segment.
You can watch all four segments of Jon's talk with Murren here. Well worthwhile.
So here's the problem. Murren admits he has no need to go to any of these places, it's not his thing, he wouldn't even have gone to his own property if it weren't his job. This is NOT a man who has a great passion for the offerings that Vegas-goers enjoy. He does not identify with most of you who read this blog.
And yet Jim Murren has just decided that he understands what travelers who come here want -- to the tune of a $8.5 billion complex. There's a disconnect there and it's a very, very important one.
Murren speaks of "themed resorts" as if (a) they're tawdry and (b) anyone's opened a new one since 1999. All that has been built -- I'm leaving out Aladdin/Planet Hollywood because that's a strange anomaly in so many ways -- in recent years have been upscale quarters for the increasingly wealthy, hip and cultured. What's new this decade? The Palms, Wynn, Encore, Palazzo, Palms Place, Red Rock Resort and M. Not a theme to be found in any of those. And Murren would know this if he'd do his due diligence as head of this corporation. (Palazzo, despite its name, really is themeless.)
No, the argument could be made that in a marketplace increasingly crowded with stuff for a class of people whose numbers are shrinking, a new themed resort geared to the rest of us would be a delightful, welcome and distinctive change of pace.
What's more, Murren is eschewing the sort of serious in-the-trenches research that Wynn, Maloof, the Fertittas, the Boyds, the Marnells and others are known to do in a constant fashion. You just can't understand Vegas secondhand or from a report. Just ask anyone who was dragged here kicking and screaming by a spouse or friend and then had all their preconceived notions erased.
CityCenter was Jim Murren's idea. A community is now reliant on its success. But when Murren tells us he thinks he knows what travelers want in Las Vegas, he's basing it on what?
