You’ve got to hand this to Elaine Wynn: She doesn’t give up easily. Her attorneys have filed their no less than fifth amended complaint and counterclaim. It 
references depositions from several Wynn Resorts board members, including former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller. It also levels some serious claims against CEO Steve Wynn and General Counsel Kim Sinatra, accusing them of concealing information to the board, depriving the latter of its ability to govern the company appropriately. The fan-dance motion promises “startling admissions” of “reckless, risk-taking behavior … he made a multimillion-dollar payment and used company resources to silence and that he did not properly disclose to the board of directors.” Do tell! As for the charge that Mr. Wynn exploited “a public company to fund his lavish lifestyle and personal politics,” that won’t come as any surprise to those who have read Christina Binkley‘s The Winner Takes All. However, the timing of the motion — just before Wynn’s next earnings call — may be more than coincidence.
Mr. Wynn’s represented were quick to fire back with a press release that charged the ex-Mrs. Wynn with using “shock and awe” tactics, which seems like a fair assessment, and of peddling “false and inflammatory accusations.” Furthermore, the statement read, “She is promising verification for these same tired allegations without delivering on them. There was no legal reason for her press release. Her only motivation is an attempt to harm Mr. Wynn and Wynn Resorts and conduct the trial of her unfounded allegations in the press rather than in court where they are destined to be proved false.” It’s hard to argue that Elaine Wynn isn’t trying her case in the court of public opinion. Watching all this, however, John Q. Public is likely to decide that the Wynns deserve each other.
* New casino openings — think Aria and SLS Las Vegas — don’t move the needle around here anymore, but T-Mobile Arena (have a gander) promises to stir up some genuine excitement. My peers in the media certainly think so, as does MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren, who says, “We’re becoming a real big sports town,” 
even though we don’t have any real big sports … at least not yet. “By bringing the Pacific-12 basketball tournament here a few years ago — which everyone said, ‘No, the NCAA would never have a basketball tournament here’ — now everybody loves it,” Murren told Norm(!) Clarke. While he’s confident that Las Vegas will land a professional sports team, now that it has T-Mobile (is it too soon to start calling it “The T”?), Murren sees the real growth coming through regional, collegiate men’s and women’s basketball tourneys. And he’s predicting that we’ll see it real soon: two years, three tops.
Nor has Murren ceased to advocate for New Urbanism, saying of The Park, “we’re going to prove that’s economically successful.” He managed to get Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) down to cut the ribbon, although Sandoval upstaged himself with a gaffe that this was a great day “for the City of Las Vegas” (The Park lies several miles outside Las Vegas’ city limits). If I were Mayor Carolyn Goodman I’d take that misplaced accolade and run with it — much to the chagrin of the Clark County Commission, no doubt. In other news of the day, Murren trotted out the idea of renaming Monte Carlo as The Park at MGM Grand, perhaps to see how it would be received.
Already the question is being asked whether T-Mobile gives MGM more options or puts it in competition with itself. No casino company has remotely as many big venues. And T-Mobile has already snurched the Pac-12 tournament from MGM Grand Garden Arena. 
MGM executives even conceded to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the new showplace in town would hurt business at their other venues in the near term. “It’s very hard for existing arenas not to feel the pinch of a new arena, especially because the new arena is invariably more modern and comfortable,” Smith College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist told the paper. Users of the arena will feel the pinch of parking fees, something that will make locals think twice about how much they want to patronize an MGM property.
MGM execs are shooting for 100 more events a year at T-Mobile (an NHL franchise could account for half of those), which still leaves a lot of “dark” nights — over 200 — at the Strip’s big halls. “That gives you a little gulp in the throat,” said University of Michigan professor Mark Rosentraub, although MGM Senior Vice President for Entertainment Bruce Arpin riposted, “Our goal is to get to 100 events at T-Mobile and have no impact 
on our other buildings.” He cites George Strait‘s upcoming residency to make his point: “His engagement wasn’t going to happen without this building … He was compelled by this proposition.” MGM has already booked an e-sports tournament into Mandalay Bay Events Center, and is attempting to recruit college hockey and wrestling tourneys, events which could draw enough fans to strain MGM’s arena capability to the max. Unlike MGM, Zimbalist and Rosentraub think it will take a few years for T-Mobile’s impact to be measurable … although it certainly poses a competitive challenge for UNLV‘s potentially underfunded Thomas & Mack Center. At least MGM passed on the chance to lure the National Finals Rodeo away from the T&M, a generous gesture that it certainly didn’t have to make.
* You know that Sheldon Adelson‘s attempts to get Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez tossed from the Steven Jacobs wrongful-termination case are meretricious when empty suit Alan Dershowitz is trotted out in an attempt to impress the Nevada Supreme Court. As long as Dershowitz is in Carson City to blow hot air, perhaps he can try to get his pal O.J. Simpson sprung from jail, too.
* Another Las Vegas icon is in danger of being effaced. The exemplary and thorough story only fails to mention that Champagne’s is one of the most highly-regarded karaoke bars in town.
