Sometimes Las Vegas embraces the long goodbye. Think Elton John or Motley Crue seemingly forever on a final tour or the many acts who may not say the end is near, but whose age makes it a distinct possibility.
In other cases, the end comes quickly. Nobody knew in 2010 that a horrible (albeit perhaps predictable) accident would end the storied careers of magicians Siegfried and Roy. That has happened under less tragic circumstances for casinos, countless shows, and well-loved attractions.
Many times exact closing dates are hidden to both entice a last bit of nostalgic tourist traffic and to keep people making reservations even if the property they reserve may not be fully operational by the time they get there.
That’s basically what’s happening at Mirage, a property with new owners that’s going to be massively overhauled to compete with the many resort casinos operated by Caesar’s Entertainment (CZR) and MGM Resorts International (MGM). Those new owners, Hard Rock International, want people to know that some things are coming to an end at the property, but they also want people to keep booking rooms.
Hard Rock International plans to build a Guitar Hotel on the Mirage property. The company has acknowledged that the new hotel will sit where the current Mirage Volcano is located, That means the famed attraction will close — something the new owners have been clear about — but when has been obscured and the closure might be coming much sooner than you expected.
The new owner of the Mirage began early steps in construction of the Guitar Hotel on Jan. 31.
“Workers will be drilling in six different locations at the Mirage Resort this week to determine where exactly to construct the iconic Hard Rock Guitar,” KTNV reported.
While this is routine and expected, it’s also a first step toward starting construction which means that the iconic Mirage Volcano will is likely headed toward its last days. Hard Rock has confirmed that the free attraction would close, but has not shared a date when that will happen.
While the new owner intends to “gut” the property Hard Rock International CEO James Allen has said the resort won’t close, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
That seems like Allen playing a little bit of a game with semantics as while parts of the property may always stay open, it’s almost certainly going to have highly compromised operations. Allen, however, does not want to say that because Hard Rock does not yet have a timetable for construction so it wants people to keep booking rooms at the property.
Allen has left himself some wiggle room for what seems like an inevitable closure.
“There’s no intention at this time to close the building,” Allen said. “We certainly are like any company. We will look at the construction schedule, we will look at the economy, whether there is or is not a recession and a year and a half from now or so probably would be the timeframe that we would evaluate what makes the most sense,” he shared.
The new owner will still host the “Beatles: Love” Cirque du Soleil show “for the long-term,” but it’s possible that construction impacts some performances. Hard Rock did make a deal with the Cirque du Soleil to continue that show, presumably for years to come as a Beatles production certainly fits the property’s new theme.