Las Vegas morning update for Sunday, August 19 — VIDEO
Here are your Sunday morning headlines:
1. Circus Circus hotel and casino turns 50 in two months, but owners MGM Resorts International aren’t planning major upgrades any time soon.
Between 2015 and 2017, Circus Circus had the fastest percentage growth in average room rate and cash flow among MGM’s Strip properties.
A major upgrade to the historic property would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars and potentially disrupt business, analysts said.
The property last year spent $9 million to expand the outdoor pool area and add a giant slide. This year it will begin replacing the casino carpet.
Analysts expect that MGM will have to do something to compete with coming upgrades at SLS Las Vegas and Stratosphere, as well as the opening of nearby Resort World Las Vegas, The Drew and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s new convention space. All are expected to open as early as the end of 2020.
2. Robotics might not be the first thing you think about as a hobby at a performing arts school, but at Las Vegas Academy, students have started their own club for the activity.
Now this year 28 students are taking a full-time robotics class, and a number of them say they’re planning on going into an engineering or science field.
Programs like the school’s robotics team class is part of the vision that Tesla has for school across Nevada. Nonprofit First Nevada will receive more than $315,000 to help get more robotics teams up and running.
Tesla recently granted $1.5 million in grants to nonprofits statewide to further science, technology and math education. Those grants are the first step in a $37.5 million investment in education promised by the company over the next 5 years.
Contact Madelyn Reese at 702-383-0497 or mreese@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MadelynGReese on Twitter.
