Crystal ball projects tourism records, stadium opening on time

In Major League Baseball, you’re considered a great hitter and could go to the Hall of Fame if you succeed one time out of three.

By most standards, my gaming and tourism predictions for 2019 were passable, but I’m not expecting a call from the Hall anytime soon.

Now is the time of year when the faint of heart go out on a limb and suggest what could happen in the news in the year ahead.

First, a recap of 2019:

I accurately forecast that Wynn Resorts Ltd. would retain its gaming license in Massachusetts and have to pay eight-figure fines there and in Nevada. There was one swing-and-a-miss in guessing that Encore Boston Harbor wouldn’t open on time. It did, on June 23.

I was right on predicting that the Nevada Gaming Commission would approve a new sexual harassment regulation. The commission did one better in banning all forms of discrimination and not just sexual harassment in amendments to Regulation 5.

I had no problem predicting that the Raiders would play their home season in the Bay Area in 2019. You might recall that the team had a tiff with operators of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, and the 2018 season finale, a win over the Denver Broncos, was stated as potentially the last game in that stadium. It wasn’t. The team played the whole season at the Coliseum.

I sort of got the prediction that at least one major Las Vegas project would be delayed, but it wasn’t so much about lack of labor as I projected as it was a change in focus for Genting Group’s Resorts World Las Vegas, which now will open in 2021instead of the end of 2020.

Predictions about new international air service to Japan, the renaming of McCarran International Airport to honor former Sen. Harry Reid and the arrival of a Major League Soccer franchise to Southern Nevada? Complete whiffs on my part. While international air service is still robust and there’s still movement to open casino resorts in Japan, no airline has stepped up with new service between there and McCarran — which is still McCarran and not Reid International, by the way.

And, there was more chatter about Major League Baseball coming to Southern Nevada with Major League Soccer still on hold

So what lies ahead in 2020? Try some of these prognostications:

■ Allegiant Stadium will open on time, and the first season of the Raiders will be played there without having to move games elsewhere. Many of you out there expect the stadium opening to be delayed.

■ The first event at Allegiant Stadium won’t be a football game. It’ll be a concert. Who the artist will be remains a little fuzzy, but the performance will be a sellout. And every Raiders game will be sold out in the 2020 season.

■ When Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Tony Alamo ends his third four-year commission term in April, he’ll be replaced by a woman, meaning that both of the state’s gaming regulatory bodies will be headed by women.

■ The NFL draft in Las Vegas in April will be deemed a huge success, but it won’t attract as many visitors as the number who went to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2019.

■ The Caesars Entertainment Corp. buyout by Eldorado Resorts Inc. will be completed as expected, and the new Reno-based Caesars will sell Planet Hollywood to a gaming company that doesn’t currently have a presence on the Strip.

■ The Boring Company will complete its tunneling on schedule, and the opening of the people-mover system at the Las Vegas Convention Center will come down to the wire.

■ A major foreign gaming company will enter Southern Nevada.

■ The number of conventioneers coming to Las Vegas will break 2017’s meetings attendance record, but overall visitation will still fall short of 2016’s record. The number of passengers flying through McCarran will be higher than the 2019 record.

■ Maybe under the wishful thinking department: The Culinary union and Station Casinos will end their feud and Station will negotiate contracts at properties where votes have been taken and the union will acknowledge when it loses.

Are you ready for 2020? Ready or not, here it comes.

Here’s to a Hall of Fame year for all.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.

This story has been updated to reflect the accurate tenure of Commissioner Tony Alamo as chairman. In April, he will complete his third four-year term as chairman.