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Cover story: What might Las Vegas look like after the shutdown ends?
After five weeks of total shutdown, the Las Vegas Strip remains the epicenter of uncertainty. The only thing that seems clear as casino resort officials make plans to slowly and carefully reopen the Entertainment Capital of the World is that the entertainment component will likely be the last piece added to the new Vegas puzzle.
The venues that make Las Vegas one of the most dynamic destinations on the planet require big crowds, and bringing those back doesn’t appear to be in the cards here or anywhere else anytime soon. Concerts, production shows, nightclubs and other live entertainment events will present some of the most complicated challenges as the Strip finds a way forward through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believe the biggest obstacle everyone will face in live entertainment, sports, etc., is [ensuring] that guests feel and are safe,” says Lou D’Angeli, Vice President of Marketing and PR for Cirque du Soleil. “Collectively, the live events industry needs to be clear about the precautions we are taking to [ensure] safety for our fans, artists, athletes, everyone. It’s truly a collective effort to bring everyone back in the best possible conditions.”
The question on the public’s mind is when will Vegas resume being Vegas, but producers, promoters, performers and By Brock Radke
venue operators have been focusing on the question of how, ever since they were forced to cease entertainment operations in mid-March.
At press time, Cirque du Soleil’s seven Strip shows were selling tickets for performances in early June, with one exception: Mystére, held at Treasure Island, is the only Cirque production not situated at an MGM Resorts property, and tickets remained available for May 11 shows as of April 22. It’s unlikely those will take place.
“There are planning meetings happening, but there is no playbook for this,” D’Angeli says. “Of course, we want to flip a switch and have Vegas back. [But] that will take some time, and we need to operate with safety first. We have discussions daily with our partners at MGM Resorts and Treasure Island. I’m very confident … that plan … will be top-notch, safe and with a customer-first mentality.”
Music festivals appear to be among the toughest pieces of the re-emergence puzzle. On April 21, Life Is Beautiful—originally scheduled for September on the streets of Downtown Las Vegas—canceled its 2020 edition. Likewise, Punk Rock Bowling scrapped its 2020 fest, previously planned for Downtown in May. Meanwhile, Electric Daisy Carnival has postponed its annual Las Vegas Motor Speedway gathering from May until October, hopeful it can find answers to the many health and logistical unknowns—from bringing artists and attendees in from around the globe to keeping them safe once they’re here—over the next five months.
Still, an April 13 Consequence of Sound article quoted Pennsylvania-based medical expert Zeke Emanuel suggesting largescale gatherings like festivals might not be able to resume until “fall 2021 at the earliest,” while an April 15 piece in London’s Guardian cited a poll in which fewer than 50% of concert regulars said they’d feel comfortable attending shows once restrictions were lifted.
The next event on the calendar at T-Mobile Arena, the largest live entertainment venue on the Strip, is a Bon Jovi concert on June 20, for which tickets were still on sale as of April 20. That event is produced by Live Nation, arguably the biggest concert promoter in Las Vegas with residency shows by Lady Gaga, Aerosmith, Gwen Stefani, Keith Urban and Shania Twain at Park MGM, Caesars Palace and Planet Hollywood, plus concert tours stopping at many other local venues.
Live Nation President Joe Berchtold told CNBC last week the company is planning to go the next handful of months without any concert productions in the 40 countries in which it operates, saying, “We’ve got a long way to go” before social distancing and other adjusted behaviors get to a point where large gatherings can resume.
“How we develop testing and what we get in place for treatment, all of that will determine when we will be able to have concerts again,” Berchtold said. “We’re highly confident that concerts in 2021 and 2022 will be bigger than ever. I think for the vast majority of people, once they have the certainty of the vaccine and the comfort that they know they have something which is going to keep them from getting ill, I do think there is a fundamental human need to gather and that people will get together … [and] go to bars, go to concerts. What we’ve seen in past experiences is that people will return.”
Las Vegas officials also maintain confidence that visitors from all over will want to come back to see shows and have fun on the Strip, and that confidence is bolstered by the adjustments Vegas venues and workers are making to new rules and different methods of operation.
Adam Steck, whose SPI Entertainment produces five shows at three different Strip resorts, said Vegas has bounced back quickly during other economically challenging eras, because visitors crave entertainment when times are tough. The coronavirus crisis is different, but Las Vegas will similarly find a way to respond, he said.
“We have the most innovative and diverse entertainment and the most creative minds onstage and behind the scenes anywhere on the planet,” Steck said. “We’re going to persevere and we’re going to come back and crush it when this thing is over. People will really want to let their hair down and party and have a good time. It’s just a matter of when and how it’s going to unwind.
There’s little doubt resorts will change practices to draw business back to the Strip when the time comes, but there’s a lot left to define in regards to what the live entertainment experience might look like when it’s available again.
Three of Steck’s shows are presented at the Excalibur’s Thunder Land Showroom, a 425-seat space. It will likely be easier to relaunch live productions in a room that size than at nearby Mandalay Bay’s 2,500-seat House of Blues or the 12,000-seat Events Center.
“We just have to be prepared,” Steck said. “We have five shows, and each one of them [will be] ready to launch in any kind of scenario, whether it’s customers wearing masks, everybody wearing masks, staggered seating, cutting capacity in half. … Whatever it takes, we’re ready to do it, because people are thirsty for entertainment and entertainers are thirsty to get onstage.”
Wynn Las Vegas contains two of the busiest showrooms on the Strip—Encore Theater and Le Réve Theater—and two of the biggest and most popular clubs, XS Nightclub and Encore Beach Club. Information from a health and sanitation program guidelines statement issued by Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox on April 19 indicated the Strip could slowly begin to reopen with extensive safety measures in place in mid to late May.
Those measures include physical distancing across all property venues, including the casino floor, restaurants, bars and pools. Entertainment venues are understandably the smallest part of this initial Wynn plan. The only info on nightclubs is that their operation is “pending guidance from local authorities and medical experts,” and extensive guidelines for the production show Le Réve include physical distancing protocols regarding theater seating and capacity and backstage performer behavior. Among the examples: “Performers and divers in close contact with each other to sanitize themselves by fully submersing in the chlorinated theater water;” and “Costume dressing and quick-change protocols are staggered and supervised by wardrobe attendants.”
The many moving parts that make Las Vegas live entertainment so memorable and worthy also present new and unique challenges as the Strip plans for its new normal.
By Case Keefer
Almost every day, Las Vegas Lights owner/CEO Brett Lashbrook holds a virtual meeting with his soccer team’s staff. And almost every day, Lashbrook imparts some version of the same message.
That mirrors the attitude of most sports organizations, from the minors to the majors, regional to national, as COVID-19 postponements stretch into a second month. Leagues remain hopeful to get back to the playing field and are trying to stay proactive, but remain stuck in a holding pattern while health and safety officials determine a timetable.
“We’re all circling the airport trying not to run out of gas,” says Don Logan, Las Vegas Aviators president and chief operating officer.
There’s a sense that the NBA and NHL, the two major leagues that paused their seasons in midMarch, will set the precedent. Both have worldwide television deals that draw in billions annually— and the playoffs are the most valuable part of the package. The leagues figure to try whatever they can to recoup at least a portion of that revenue, but the exact route remains unclear, as most reports so far amount to speculation.
That’s left teams like the Vegas Golden Knights, in the Pacific Division’s No. 1 seed position when the NHL halted, in a similar position as their fans—waiting for updates to trickle in. The latest briefing saw the NHL extend self-quarantine guidelines for players and team staff from April 15 to April 30, but otherwise, there hasn’t been much news.
“We’re exploring and want to be prepared for whenever the circumstances present themselves,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said April 13 on CNN’s Anderson Cooper Live. “We haven’t ruled anything in, haven’t ruled anything out, and we’ll be prepared to go in whatever direction makes
sense at the time.” (The Golden Knights had not responded to our inquiries at press time.)
Bettman acknowledged reports suggesting the NHL might stage the rest of its season in Grand Forks, North Dakota—home to several ice rinks as the annual host to junior hockey tournaments— but the commissioners downplayed the scenario as just one possibility. Similar setups have dominated the discourse for other major leagues. Several reports have indicated the NBA is interested in moving its season to Las Vegas, and Major League Baseball is reportedly considering stationing its franchises at their spring-training bases in Arizona and Florida.
Those ideas make sense on one level. They would greatly reduce travel, and restrict attendance to players, coaches and essential personnel only— games would be played without fans. Participants would be subject to regular testing and instructed
Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner (John Locher/AP Photo)
to quarantine at hotels between competition.
But some local sports executives caution those scenarios are far from certain. Logan, whom Baseball America named Minor League Executive of the Year after he oversaw the Triple-A Aviators’ move from Cashman Field to Las Vegas Ballpark last season, cast particular doubt on the widespread spring-training-site MLB rumors.
Logan also isn’t convinced closed-door games are the answer. Resuming without fans might work for the majors, but the minor leagues are more dependent on their live product than TV revenue. The Aviators, who were scheduled to start their season on April 9, drew a Pacific Coast League-best average attendance of 9,299 fans per game last season.
“We can’t have fans in the stands doing anything, but we’re going to have an umpire, catcher and hitter stand in a box that’s 6 feet [wide],” Logan says. “It’s got to be across the board. I don’t think you can say we can’t have any fans because we can’t enforce the 6-foot rule, but we’re going to let the players do it.”
The Lights, who were within two days of the start of their season when the United Soccer League postponed on March 12, are in a similar position. The organization has built its brand around the game-day experience and expected another attendance jump in its third year, after a near-20 percent increase to 7,711 per game last year at Cashman Field.
Lashbrook sounds confident the Lights will begin their season as soon as it’s safe. Logan sounds optimistic the Aviators could start by June, with some of the games lost in April and May tacked on after its announced schedule concludes in early September.
That could put the Aviators in unforeseen competition with Las Vegas’ newest sports franchise, the Raiders, slated to begin playing at the under-construction Allegiant Stadium during the NFL preseason in August. The coronavirus has thus far not impacted the NFL schedule; the new league year and free agency started as planned on March 18.
The only major change has been the April 23-25 NFL Draft’s shift from a live Las Vegas event to a virtual one. A much larger headache could ensue if Allegiant Stadium isn’t completed on time, but it’s said to be 85 percent done and on target for competition by the end of July.
Whether the Raiders will share their first year in Las Vegas with UNLV’s football team seems murkier. NCAA officials and conference commissioners have made no guarantees on going forward with fall sports seasons and reportedly told Vice President Mike Pence they would not compete if colleges aren’t in session at that time.
That has left the UNLV athletic department in the same bind as its professional counterparts, scrambling on how to proceed and work around an indefinite end date.
“We’re creating contingency plans,” UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois says. “For the past three weeks, all of our head coaches and our senior staff have been working on how this pandemic impacts us—not just today [and] not just tomorrow. We did a futurist exercise where we mapped out [what happens] if we don’t come back until May 15, which is the end of the academic year, if we don’t come back until June 8, which is second session summer school, if we don’t come back until August 4, which is when football and our fall sports report back. ‘How is your respective team impacted?’”
As with so many things right now, no one really knows.
Mike Grimala contributed to this story.
