With its bright lights and overwhelming sensation of blissful chaos, Las Vegas is always full of surprises and temptations, fun and unmatched thrill. The city that never sleeps once again went big to ring in the new year with concerts, dazzling fireworks, and casino entertainment.
But now that festivities are coming to a close, it is a good time to look at what is new in Las Vegas for 2019 from new hotels and casinos to upcoming shows and multiple other sources of entertainment.
Park MGM – Will the Renovated Resort Prove a Hit?
A number of major casino resorts are under development both on the Strip and in downtown Vegas, but most of them are scheduled to swing their doors open in 2020. In other words, 2019 will be a year of anticipation for all Vegas aficionados. And for Park MGM, the renovated and rebranded Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, 2019 will be the year when it will become clear whether MGM Resorts International’s $500-plus-million investment will restore the former glory of the glitzy property.
MGM celebrated over the weekend the opening of the resort with the start of Lady Gaga’s Vegas residency, the introduction of the city’s first Eataly, a 40,000-square-foot Italian marketplace, and the launch of the new speakeasy and club On The Record.
The renovated resort features two hotels – the 2,700-room Park MGM and the 293-room NoMad Las Vegas. The opening of the latter hotel represents the entry of the NoMad brand in the Las Vegas hospitality market.
Celebrity Residencies
As mentioned above, the grand opening of Park MGM was celebrated with the launch of Lady Gaga’s LADY GAGA ENIGMA residency. Known for her eccentric, experimental, and elaborate shows, the six-time Grammy Award-winner, Golden Globe Award-winner, and Academy Award nominee thrilled the Las Vegas crowd this past weekend with hits ranging from Just Dance, Bad Romance, Telephone and Million Reasons at Park Theater at Park MGM.
Gaga opened her residency with futuristic props and a number of bold looks, including one that featured tangerine lips and bright blue hair.
After the highly successful Piece of Me residency at The Axis at Planet Hollywood, news broke last year that Britney Spears would come back to Vegas, this time performing at Park Theater. Her Domination residency is slated to kick off in February and it is yet to be seen whether it would prove as popular as it predecessor which sold nearly 1 million tickets.
Las Vegas will become home to some more big names in music over the year, with some of those being Cher, Robbie Williams, and Aerosmith.
Cosmo Ditches Paid Parking
After the completion of a massive renovation project, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas announced last year that it would nix parking fees. The reversed parking policy takes effect today. The parking fee has been incorporated in the resort fee, which now stands at $39, up from $35. Residents of the city will still be treated to a free first hour of parking.
Cosmo follows suit from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore which dumped parking fees last summer, becoming the first Strip resorts to reverse their parking policies. Unlike those, Strip properties owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp. and MGM increased their parking fees early into 2018, despite heavy criticism.
World Poker Tour Final Tables Coming to Town
While the World Series of Poker has decided to scrap the November Nine format, the World Poker Tour has fully embraced delayed Main Tour Main Event final tables as the big innovation of this season of the series.
The popular poker series announced last spring that all televised final tables from the start of Season XVII onwards would be delayed and would be played at HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas at The Luxor. The first such final table will be recorded on March 12 when the final six of the WPT Gardens Championship will reconvene after spending a few days in mid-January playing at Gardens Casino in the Los Angeles area, California.
The Raiders Might Move to Vegas ahead of the 2019 NFL Season
It is very possible that the last Raiders game at the Coliseum was played last week against the Denver Broncos. The NFL franchise has threatened to leave Oakland a year earlier than its planned move to Las Vegas for the 2020 NFL season. The announcement about the Raiders’ possible departure came after Oakland filed a lawsuit against the team and the NFL. The city sought damages for the Silver and Black’s move to Vegas.
While the Raiders will play at Las Vegas Stadium once the venue becomes operational in 2020, it is still unclear where they will play during the 2019 season. Possibilities range from AT&T Park in San Francisco to Arizona. There have also been rumors that the franchise could land in Vegas or downtown Reno.
