Does Las Vegas Satisfy, Last of the Riviera & Vegas Loop 1 Million!

Hello and welcome to the MTM Vegas Podcast. I'm Sean Kumier, your host, joined as always by Mark Osterman. We have a great show for you this week. As a reminder, you can watch this show along with all the visuals that go with it at youtube.com forward slash miles to memories. On this week's show, we are going to discuss a survey that came out as Caesars considering selling status plus Vegas Loop welcomed its 1 millionth passenger. The LV CVA has finally agreed to sell that land where the Riviera once stood out on the strip. Guy Fieri is bringing yet another restaurant to Las Vegas. The Formula One race is moving along and they announced the schedule for repaving the entire track. We'll get into that. Plus, the 2022 visitor profile came out from the LV CVA. We learn all about who's visiting Las Vegas, how much they're spending, and more importantly, are they leaving satisfied? You might be surprised. All of that and more is coming up on this show. As a reminder, you can find all of our Vegas content that's posts, podcasts, and videos at mtmvegas.com. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, consider leaving us a five star review. It helps us out a lot. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening. Let's hit it. So Mark, I was this many years old when I learned that the gondolas at the Venetian are powered by electric motors. The gondoliers aren't actually propelling those along, although they're steering them. Did you know this? It's actually a question that never crossed my mind. I never really cared. But it makes sense. Our friend Ryan isn't very buff. So I mean, he pushes it. So now we know why. It's funny. Somebody asked him on Twitter whether it was him in this picture that somebody had posted about it, the promotional picture. And he said they used to use him, but now he's too old. But it's funny how like, we'll talk about something later in the show that I didn't know either how all these little things are in Vegas, cool things to learn just like you had never crossed my mind. But it makes perfect sense that they would have a little help given the shallow two foot water that they have to navigate. Yeah, and it's cool that the in the boats are lighter, so they don't need a ton. It's just like we said in Vegas, if you just walk around each property and really deep dive it, you'll find stuff you've never seen before. And if you've been there 40 times, which is kind of insane to think about in something none of us really do like we should, you know, when you go say somewhere, you should really walk around and look at every single thing you can if you're if you're nerdy into Vegas like that. As I teased on the last show, we got some new F1 renderings. And you know, F1 is going to be trickling this stuff out throughout the year and we'll cover it as it's interesting. I like seeing these renderings, seeing the course, the track, it kind of gives you an idea how the city's going to transform. And I've been in a couple cities that have had grandfrees and watched how the streets transformed. So it's kind of interesting. So it looks pretty, you got the sphere lit up. They're doing a good job of selling this. This is the long sale all the way through November when they hope that gazillions of people will come and watch. Yeah, the sphere looks really cool in the renderings now. Will it look like that in person? We don't know. I mean, we're going to show you a clip of it glitching out or whatever. It doesn't look as cool. But I'm sure it'll get, you know, near there. So that's the thing with renderings. Like everything always looks perfect. It does it really blew my mind like looking at these and seeing how much effort they're putting into building these grandstands, building out the road and like how much is going to be different. Just getting around the city just for a weekend is insane and just shows you how much money they make off of these things if they're willing to put all this time and effort into it for such a short period of time. Someone on Twitter, I think maybe Vital Vegas said this is going to cause a war between locals and tourists, right? Locals are going to hate this. And just watching this sort of transform is going to be so ugly for anybody who has to be around there for the few weeks around there. First off, they're going to have to repay all these streets and then they're going to have to start building the barriers weeks out. And yeah, it's going to be ugly. But the paddock is also kind of progressing. We got some updates this last week or so of what the building is going. It's going up pretty quick and it's transforming that whole area and that's going to be a permanent structure. We know that Clark County has voted to kind of have this race for 10 years at least or at least to open up the possibility of that. They're committed for three years. But Formula One is going to be here for a long time. But this is the first race, right? This is the inaugural one. It's going to be the really special one and they're going all out on that. And as you said about the sphere, yeah, we got some video of it fully testing now or we think it's testing. Maybe it's glitching. I think it's busted. They need to hit the unplug it and plug it back in or something. I don't know. I can't wait though. I mean, we've seen some basic testing, the dome and stuff like that. I really can't wait until the first time we see this thing fully lit up with a display that's like the final product, right? I mean, we'll see probably more stages of them testing all the different sections of the screen. But you know, it's getting there. And you know, there's more news about whether MSG is going to make money on this and performers still haven't signed on. And there's a lot of criticism too, because 90% of the ticket revenue is going to YouTube for their residency. So where's MSG going to make any money, I guess, on beer sales and stuff like that. But I see that residency as a loss leader for them, give them 90%. If they could put on an incredible show, I think all the other artists are going to follow suit. Yeah, I don't know. Like the 90% YouTube is just you're setting that bar where, you know, somebody else is going to come in and be like, well, you're only going to give me 30% or 50% or whatever the normal gate is that they get. And you're giving them 90%. It just seems like they're setting themselves up to lose there a bit. But going back to your point about locals hating F1, you know, they pretty much stay away from the strip I imagine. And that's kind of similar anywhere. Like around here, dream crews comes every summer, we're like a mile or two away from Woodward. And it's, I just get out of town because I can't stand it. People everywhere watching old cars try buy and we were in Salem this past weekend. I can't even imagine living there in October on the weekends. They probably hate it unless you just really love Halloween. But just the simplicity of getting home is probably a pain. So that's kind of wherever you live, whatever the big thing is there, the locals hate it, which is always funny. And speaking of races, the Mint 400 was this last weekend. I had tickets, but I wasn't in town. So I missed it. I was considering coming back early and I just got back late last night. But I think the event went off without a hitch. People don't know that's basically off road dirt race. The Mint 400 was a race way back in the day named after the Mint Hotel downtown, which is now part of Vinyons or that tower as part of Vinyons. But they brought the race back a few years back and I got to get to one of those. Have you ever wanted to do like a desert off road race? I think being a spectator there would be pretty cool. Yeah, I think it'd be fun to watch. You know, those are always kind of crazy and they're zipping around on their bikes and everything. So that probably would something I'd go to more than F1. I feel like F1 is going to be kind of crazy to get into it out of where these things are kind of set up out somewhere where you got a little more space, get around easier, check it out. And you know, there's always crashes. Yeah, I just think it would be interesting out there, although the logistics sounded terrible with the parking passes and getting out into the desert and all that. But glad it went off well. Now, what didn't go off well was a stunt that David Blaine tried to do at his resort's world residency. I think he's 12 shows in now and it's been very fairly, it's been fairly successful. Although he tried to do this stunt where he jumps 80 feet into a pile of boxes. I guess he missed and then he dislocated his shoulder and then they had doctors from the audience come on stage to relocate his shoulder right on stage in front of the entire audience. And then I think he finished the show, right? So yeah, that's pretty cool. There's a lot to, there's a lot to unpack here, you know, boxes unpacking funny. I know. But first off, I didn't know magicians didn't just show their own videos, you know, a lot of Chris Angel, where you just watch a video of them on stage. So that's kind of cool. And then secondly, like you see the box area that he lands is pretty big. There's like a bullseye that he's aiming for. Maybe they have like doubled up boxes or something in that little section, but he didn't miss by much. You wouldn't think it would be catastrophic. You think they would build it out that there's a pretty big area that he could miss and still come out OK. So that was kind of surprising. But I think he stabbed his hand in one thing where he was smashing cups and the audience picked one that had an ice pick in it or something. So he's definitely gotten hurt. You know, this is unknown to Vegas where magicians are doing kind of crazy things since Siegfried and Roy. So go see it, I guess, you know, it's not a video of Chris Angel talking about Chris Angel. I guess this is good advertising for David Blaine, right? The more he hurts himself, the more people are going to want to go do it. As you said, according to the review journal in his December 17th performance, he slammed his hand over three cups selected by audience members and one of the cups has an ice pick. And I guess he's supposed to avoid that, but he didn't. And the ice pick went through his hand. He also had another night where he struggled to get out of this tank where he, you know, is underwater, I guess. And he was really struggling with that. And David Blaine, you know, he's known for all this stuff, but he's not as young as he used to be. So I wonder, you know, if the all these years of doing these types of things have taken a toll, but I think this is evidence he's putting it all out there. So, you know, good for him for putting on a good show. Yeah. And it's a different kind of magic than you're used to when you go to these shows, like a lot of animal stuff, a lot of sleight of hand, you know, type of tricks with Matt Franco and things like that. And this is more danger, you know, back to Houdini old school. Matt, if you even want to call it magic, it's just kind of like doing stunts and risking your life for applause, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. And another question, how does he not have doctors on hand, like a medical team standing by with all these tricks that you need people coming in from the audience to help you out like that? That is probably the weirdest thing I find out all this so much strangeness with David Blaine. All right. So I am embarrassed to admit this after not knowing who Martin Yann is and then not knowing about the Venetian boats. Here's my trifecta. I did not know you could get to Jockey Club from inside the Cosmo casino, but there was this tip on TikTok and I saw Mark Meltzer share this on Twitter. So just to give him credit for sharing it that you can get really cheap like groceries and things like that at the Jockey Club. And you know, I knew Jockey Club was there, but I did not know that the entrance was in Cosmo. So you go through the Cosmo casino, this video shows you exactly how to do it. Yeah. Another one of those little things that missed my radar. Yeah. I was just, what we talked about early in the show is, you know, kind of explore and find everything. There's all these little elevators hidden that you don't know what they're for and all that stuff. Like I would have never paid attention. It's not easy to find. They don't do a good job of showing you where to go. So even the person on the video is like, find this bar and then walk directly across the casino to find these elevators and there's a tiny little sign that says to the Jockey Club. But that's a great tip. And as Mark said, one of the few things that were good on TikTok that actually taught you something. Yeah, it is a great tip and it makes perfect sense, right? Cosmo is literally built around Jockey Club and envelopes it on all sides. And there is a driveway to get back there for cars arriving and stuff. But for pedestrians, that's not really good that little side alleyway. And so it makes perfect sense that they built an access to it. I just never knew and yeah, how many more things do we have to discover about Las Vegas, Mark? So much. That's the fun of doing the show. Now, uh, Caesar's another week, another celebrity chef. This time one that we've heard of Guy Fieri and he is opening his chicken guy restaurant with an exclamation point at Caesar's food court at Caesar's Palace. I think Bobby's burgers are there. Guy is there. Yeah, this is to be expected. I do love guys burgers. Oh, check. Where's Jack at? We need check chicken. Yeah, well, we got a couple of shacks, big chickens around town, just not in Caesar's. They haven't teamed up with him yet. I mean, I'm just getting kind of tired of rehashing the same for celebrity chefs and doing like bringing either new celebrities, chefs or maybe bringing a local thing that, you know, you want to promote a taco play something. I don't know. It just seems like they're so corporate and so set in their ways that there's like, okay, Guy, can you come up with a new concept for us because we can't bring anything unique. And I know Vegas is kind of like a transplant area where there's not a ton of homegrown restaurants. And this is the way they can show off chefs from around the country and stuff. But you know, limited to two, you get two restaurants and then we move on, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, and you're kind of make a good point as we see other places bringing in these food halls with these unique concepts or they're bringing in restaurants from other cities and other areas. We've seen resorts world do that with their very specific food hall. We've seen Aria bring in some concepts from Southern California. So that's sort of been the direction in Caesar's is just like copy paste, you know, Gordon Ramsey, copy paste, Guy Fieri, you know, they did bring in Martha Stewart. I think she was new, right? And then Martin, he's new. So they did bring in some new people. Yeah. So I guess they are expanding, but it's definitely like a copy and paste thing. And this is sort of his type of food. So it could be good. But you know, it's going to be like what a 20, $25 chicken sandwich, probably. Yeah, or $25 for three chicken strips is just it's going to be expensive. It's in a food court slash food hall. So those are all pricey. Now that used to be the cheap way to get, you know, you're drinking and you want something quick and cheap, you go to the food court. Now it's basically sit down restaurant prices. So hopefully it's good. All right. And the big story of this week is that land that the Riviera once sat on right on Las Vegas Boulevard. And that's in front of the new convention center expansion next to Pepper Mill. And if you remember last year or actually a couple years ago, a Chilean investor went into contract on that property for $120 million. He eventually backed out and lost to $7 million. So the LVC VA took a $7 million breakup fee. And now they're in contract to sell it for $125 million. Or at least they have to vote actually this week. The day this comes out, they're going to vote to basically accept this. I think it's going to get accepted. So I just want to be clear that as of the time we're recording this, it has not been. But basically the people who are going to buy it are the same people that are behind Harmon Corner and that new mall next to crystals on Harmon. So basically the people who put all the screens and made the Times Square of Las Vegas on Harmon and Las Vegas Boulevard, they are looking to buy it. So I would expect a CVS. Definitely a mall going there, right? Some sort of mall. Yeah, which is sad to see. I was hoping for another casino property like they were talking. And I'm kind of wondering like, does this end up falling through to? And this is like a the city of Las Vegas is the pawn shop where they just make money off of people putting a deposit to save it. And they make like $7 million every year. And then people back out. That'd be kind of funny. Yeah, I mean, I see this as actually not a bad thing because hear me out. You have Fountain Blue opening up and you have resource world across the street. And this could really be a connector between those two things in a similar way to the way Harmon Corner connects basically Cosmo and Planet Hollywood. And it kind of would work similarly to that. So I could see it working well. And I think it's good that they're selling it to investors that have developed in Las Vegas on the Las Vegas strip that have skin in the game. It means that there's probably more chance that it's going to go through. And the fact that it's not a casino project is probably not terrible either because we have so many other casino projects. And that's a pretty small piece of land 10 acres. So any project was going to be fairly small anyway, plus you have all the convention center crowd. I think it's good. I mean, Pepper Mill might have some neighbors though, which could give it some competition up there. You just want another Taco Bell cantino with a wedding check, don't you? Absolutely. And then we need to get another friend to get married there. So we could do that. There is nothing like hanging out at the Taco Bell Cantina at 1am on the strip and just people watching. Oh man, great stuff. Yeah, it's crazy. And it gets packed and it's just yeah, it's great people watching. The other place I love to people watch is as people come down, dreze at like 2, 3 in the morning from the rooftop bar, you just sit there and you're like playing a slot machine or whatever. And it's just the parade of people that look all exhausted and sweaty and all dressed to the nines, but look disheveled by this point. It's like a pre walk of shame, walk of shame, I guess. And the women, of course, with their heels in their hands because they finally give up and they can't walk in them anymore. That's one torturist thing I'll never understand. God bless them for wearing those things, but I would be wearing flats. There's dress up nicely, but find some nice pretty flats because Vegas and high heels. No good. We should make a shoe that the heel just like shrinks into a flat halfway through the night. You click a button. Boom. Done. A billion dollar idea right there. And with that, I already have it. That's our public service for the day. So somebody go out there and make that forget that's why you guys watch the show. So Mark, we all know one of the best ways to get ahead in Vegas is with status. Caesars used to hand it out via match all the time, but now apparently they're looking to charge for it. Yeah, they'll take your money and then they'll cut the benefits in half within a couple of weeks. That's what they love to do. Man, anytime somebody sells status, it is instantly worth less than it was before. And we've talked about how Caesar's status used to be my favorite in Vegas, you know, five, six years ago. Now it's probably the worst. So I don't know who's buying it. Yeah. Now this is just a survey. So we don't know that they're going to charge, but they're always looking for ways to make more money. And I agree, this is sort of the maturation though, instead of giving things for free, even for loyal customers, just charge more for the things that people want the most. It's not only Caesar's doing this, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see some upgraded packages with some of the perks that elites used to get Caesar, race to the bottom winner. I guess loop is a couple of years old now it opened at the Las Vegas Convention Center a couple of years ago and then expanded to resource world. But we really don't have as much of the system as we had hoped and it hasn't been moving along as fast maybe as some had wanted. But this week they welcomed their one millionth passenger. So the LBCVA, they celebrated it. The guy got out of the car. They had this big sign. They filmed it. A million people is an accomplishment, but we still have a long way to go. A million people went in a small circle around the Convention Center in 422,000 Teslas. It's an accomplishment. I don't know how to put it into perspective. It doesn't seem all that surprising to get to, but it took a lot of cars, a lot of people driving. I saw on Twitter people made it in the least efficient way possible. They did it. So there was quite a bit of hate on Twitter, which I thought was funny. Yeah, as you put it, I took a lot of cars and a lot of drivers. That's one way to accurately describe it. I guess some other good news in the expansion. We talked a few weeks ago about them wanting to buy land from UNOV on the Thomas and Mac parking lot. Well, UNOV has now approved that. So the price still hasn't been set, but they've approved that they're going to sell the land to boring. And now they're going to come together on a fair market value for it. So that should help Vegas loop march forward. Not much else to say. Eventually, they want 69 stations, but they have to get to work on some of these tunnels before we even start to see a wider vision come to scale. I'm starting to think it's going to take a lot longer than they had originally thought. Here we are a few years later, and really not much other than a quick little extension tunnel to resource world. In like 30 years, it'll just be like a tour package where you can walk through the tunnels of what used to be. Hey, they're going to come in handy during the zombie apocalypse. There you go. We'll see. I do like the system. I just question how fast it's gotten built out, but I guess this UNOV news is big and good to see a million passengers passing through there. Now, speaking of passengers, one of the busiest airports in the country is Harry Reid International Airport. And a lot of people leave their cars there. And you would think if you left your car in the garage, that'd be fairly safe. Obviously, there's cameras going in and out, people watching stuff, their security patrols, but apparently not. There was a story mark where this body was left in a car for 23 days. Unfortunately, women drove into the garage. She decided to kill herself, which is very sad, but it was in short-term parking. So this is the maximum three-hour parking, not even long-term parking. And it took 23 days for them to discover her body. Two dozen other vehicles have been stolen from those garages in the last two years. So it seems like there might be a security problem. And it left people wondering why this car was left to sit there for so long when the maximum parking was three hours. Yeah. And usually the short-term parking is like right at the front of the garage by the doors. And it's for people that need to run in and pick somebody up or buy a ticket at the airport. So, there had to be a ton of people walking by this car for the 20-plus days. It just seems strange, one, that somebody would choose that to commit suicide. It's just kind of a weird setup. But the fact that nobody notices it is another strange thing. And then the fees that they charge at these parking structures next to the airport are astronomically high, 20, $30, some places $40. You would think that that would come with the best security possible with those fees. They're making money hand over fist and they're talking about cutbacks and having everything automated. So there's not people at the booths and everything. But still, you should have cameras everywhere at least. So you can figure out who's been doing this. Yeah. That was a surprise that they have a lot of areas that don't have cameras. And they've cut back on security patrols to less live humans going around. But there was somebody supposed to check these cars to make sure, especially in the short-term parking, to make sure they weren't there. And apparently that person didn't do it or they lied about it. Who knows what happened? But yeah, 23 days, this was just one row from the entrance of the passenger pickup. Be cautious if you're leaving your car at the airport for any length of time, because it seems like they're having issues there. Who would have thought the little bus parking lots off-site would be a safer bet? At least usually there's a person always sitting there that you need to check in, check out with and everything. So even though it's a little bit more time-consuming, it kind of a pain. Maybe that's the way to go. It's usually cheaper too. So that's good. Yeah, for sure. All right, so a quick formula one update. We talked on the last show, so I don't want to spend too much time. But they released the scheduling for repaving. And we've talked about how they're going to have to repave the entire course. And now we learn they're going to do it in six different sections and they have to repave them twice each. So they've broken it all up into Sands Avenue, the Las Vegas Strip, Harmon Avenue, Koval Lane, the Patek area, and then MSG sphere corners. And they're going to do an initial paving between April and August in those six sections. And then they have to go back and put like a two-inch topcoat, which will be the track service. And that's going to run all the way through September. So even after they do the repaving, those streets will be used for a couple of months, which I find interesting. I guess it'll hold up just fine. They're also removing the medians on Harmon and a few other places along the course. So the medians in the middle of the street gone. It's not clear whether those are going to come back after the race or just be gone permanently. Yeah, I thought it was strange that they're doing this so far in advance. And even the second coat is going to be in advance of the race quite a bit. You would think that would be an issue. Maybe they can come back and clean everything because oil spills, all that type of stuff you would think would be a problem. And it's going to be fun driving around Vegas and little sections you get like brand new road. And then it goes back to the old crappy road. So that's kind of funny. But yeah, removing medians, I couldn't see them bringing back, you know, just at a cost, especially if they want to do this long term. But that's just another change. It just, it always surprises me how much effort time money goes into this event, you know, just for a weekend. It's kind of mind-boggling really. Now the way they're going to do it is one lane at a time. So each section will have one lane closed off done and then then move on to the other lane. So there will be, you know, traffic issues, but at least they've broken this up into different parts. And then within those parts, one lane at a time. So they're not closing any streets. And hopefully the traffic nightmares won't be too numerous. But I mean, this is going to be going on for months altogether when you added all up. So it should be some ugliness for people. What about the random road art that they put on the medians? Or even miss that? Yeah, we need it. Maybe we'll get some new, some new art to replace it. Some some wacky desert tortoise tortoise or something like that. I don't know. But formula one, moving along, maybe we won't talk for a few more shows about them. I know people are getting overloaded, but I'm glad we finally have that. All right, let's move on to Red Rock and this new lounge slash restaurant bar that they have called Rouge Room. And it's a Parisian style indoor and outdoor lounge that looks like it should be right on the strip. Looks like you might see it in a place like when I don't know I'm really impressed with how Red Rock is renovated, but also some of the new concepts that they're bringing in. Yeah, it looks amazing. Something that I would definitely, you know, drive out of my way to go to go check out as long as service drinks, all that stuff is good. The build out and the vision look amazing. And it looks kind of like, you know, we've talked about chagroom at Virgin and how much we like that. This is like that on steroids, like way better done, you know, fine, high end touches versus what you get there is just kind of like the poor man's version of it. But it was still fun there. And I can only imagine this is going to be, you know, 10 times better. Yeah, it looks incredible. We also learned from Station Casino's some more about Durango. We knew that they were outsourcing some of their venues, their food and beverage venues. And we learned that click is going to be taking over three venues. Specifically, they're doing a Mexican restaurant called Miho Modern Mexican restaurant. And then Belair Lounge and Belair Backyard. The backyard looks like it's more of like a pool club, day club kind of thing, private cabanas, the concept art. I guess they didn't have any. So they just put this beautiful drawing. They don't don't knock my child's drawing. Okay, please. And then the Belair only had grand store work with. And then the Belair Lounge is going to be the centerpiece of the casino. And they say it's going to seamlessly blend sophistication with high energy and bring together the old school glamour with contemporary flair. Kind of reminds me of that other venue at Red Rock. We just talked about kind of high end modern some throwback stuff. This is what's in right now. And it looks like Durango is really aiming to be on that high end of everything. Yeah, it sounds good. I think, you know, we've talked before the show the picture that they have on the website. We're not sure what that is, if that is the concept or what it's going to look like. That kind of looked, you know, a little bit boring and bland to me. So hopefully that isn't what they're discussing here. And the pool kind of just feels like any floor to pool, palm trees, you know, a regular rectangular pool. But hopefully it's nice and fun out there, you know, if it's anywhere near what it looks like for Red Rock, it'll be great. So hopefully that's what they're shooting for. Yeah, the concept is strange, right? Because the Belair Lounge is described as the centerpiece of the casino. That concept art doesn't really show that. So we'll see what it looks like. It's good to see that other rendering that we got of the outside with the pool to new rendering of the building that we hadn't seen before. So not a lot new here, but the Belair Lounge sounds really cool. And as does the backyard. And like I said, another kind of reinforcement that this is going to be more like Red Rock compared to some of their other local stuff. This is going to be more high end, more of a resort designed to attract people from out of town. So looking forward to hearing more about that as it goes on. And speaking of hearing about people, Mark, every year this visitor profile comes out for Las Vegas visitors. And what they do in the past, they had done phone interviews. And this year they decided to also mix in online interviews. And over the course of a year, they interviewed over 6000 people who visited Las Vegas. And they basically are trying to determine, you know, why they come, how much they spend just about everything. And they get some really interesting statistics that not only tells us what the state of Las Vegas is now, but also how it's changed from last year. And also in this time pre-COVID, because that's an interesting thing. And so there's a ton of stuff to dive into. We can't cover it all. But I want to start with this, more than three quarters, 77% of visitors to Las Vegas said they were very satisfied with their visit. We know a lot of people who watch this channel aren't as satisfied as they used to be. They don't see Vegas as a good of value, as good of an experience. But 77% leaving very satisfied, another 20% leaving somewhat satisfied. So people are still definitely having fun here. Yeah, I was surprised that the numbers were so high just because, you know, in our little niche community, we hear more of the negative slant towards it. And maybe that's, you know, you're seeing a lot of people going to Vegas for the first time, especially after COVID. You know, this was kind of a go-to destination for a while. So maybe that's playing into it. They don't have anything to compare it to. But even so, like, you know, at least half the people have been to Vegas before, I would imagine, probably even more than that. So I was surprised, you know, but maybe people just aren't as negative in questionnaires as they are in YouTube comments. I don't know. I would say myself, it's somewhat satisfied when, you know, when I've gone, it's not quite as good as it was. But that's, you know, just me throwing back to the heyday of Vegas, I think. And some more numbers that support that. 53% said that Las Vegas met their expectations. Another 41% said it exceeded their expectations. So that's 94% right there. So clearly, people, either know what they're getting into. But most people aren't coming here, being shocked by the prices, shocked by the experience. And it's not negatively affecting them, or at least based on these numbers, it's not. Some other interesting things, people are bringing kids more than ever. We saw that for sure last year as well as people kind of got out traveling post pandemic. Yeah, free month. Yes, they all free month. But yeah, obviously that's happening. The average age of visitors last year, 40.7 years, that's down from 43.2 in 2021. It was 46, I think, in 2019 before the pandemic. So that shows you that younger and younger people are coming here too, which is something we're seeing by, you know, hipper venues, things like that, that, you know, 25 to 40 year old crowd definitely making their mark here, whereas in the past, maybe not as much. Yeah, I think that's why we've seen this view towards experience type of things, like area 15 and all that stuff. Like everything that opens has kind of like something going on with it, like speakeasies and stuff. And even the Parisian room that's coming, like, it's all themed and kind of like an all inclusive experience that they want you to, you know, the sphere coming in where you're going to be surrounded by TV screens everywhere. Like everything's about the experience. And I think that's aimed at the younger crowd. You know, what I was surprised from the numbers is that people are gambling less time wise, but they're bringing more money to gamble. So, you know, we've, we've all seen the table minimums double. So maybe that's what's playing into it. Yeah, in 2019, I think they gambled on average 3.6 hours last year, 3.0 this year, 2.6 hours. But in 2019, in the average person, they brought $591 to gamble and last year, $761 to gamble. So, yeah, clearly they're bringing more, but they're spending time on other stuff. And that makes more sense. If you have a younger demographic, younger people tend to gamble less. That's always been sort of the anecdotal thing we hear, whereas the older people are more, you know, into that. People are also spending more money on entertainment. The amount of money people are spending on concert tickets and even sporting events is significantly higher than it has been. And we've seen that with ticket prices and other things. So not a ton that's surprised there, but people are happy. They're paying more. They're leaving satisfied. And that says something for this new Las Vegas, even though a lot of us might not like it or we don't like some of the changes, it's working for who they're attracting and they're attracting a lot of people. So, who's to say they're wrong? Yeah, I think I saw Mark Meltzer on Twitter say that this was the first year that more people flew into Vegas than drove for ever long time, something like that. But I thought that was kind of interesting too. Yeah, the numbers on this survey only go back five years. So I don't have the numbers from before that. But on all the five years, it had never happened. It was it's very close to 50-50 every year, but always driving has outdone the flying. But this year it was flying. So yeah, more and more people coming. And that's even with international travel, not quite where it was, even though it did make a pretty good rebound in 2022. So that'll continue to happen. So a lot of interesting stuff. But yeah, I mean, as we said, we see these numbers every month with the average rate, everything else. People are spending more, but they're enjoying it. And Las Vegas is investing in those ways. There, like you said, investing in the experiences, the food halls, the speakeasies in a 2022 version or 2023 version of Las Vegas. That's different than it was, but also is unique. And we see things like Area 15 expanding, Universal Parks and resorts, the sphere, all of these sort of over the top, you know, top level world-class experiences are coming. And I think that is the future of Las Vegas. It's just not going to be cheap. Yeah. And it's interesting, you know, back in the day, it was always the shows were kind of the entertainment to draw in. They've moved away from shows. We see less and less, especially small venue shows and moving more into these experience type of things. You know, back when I first started going to Vegas, I think the only experience type of thing was the bodies exhibit, which seemed to be in Vegas for like 20 years. Yeah, we've come a long way from the bodies exhibition and the Titanic exhibit and all of that stuff that we had there. And yeah, it's going to get more expensive, more complicated, but it's gotten better in some ways. And I'd love to know what everybody out there thinks. We know a lot of you guys do not like this new corporate Las Vegas. And somebody corrected me and said, yeah, corporate Vegas began in the late 80s. Yes, it did, but it's been an evolution, right? And now we're on maybe the third version of corporate Las Vegas in this modern era. And it's different than it was even 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago. Thank you for listening to this episode of the MTM Vegas podcast. Don't forget to check us out on YouTube, YouTube.com forward slash miles to memories and MTM Vegas.com for all of our Vegas content. Thanks again for listening. Talk to you next time.