In the end, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren couldn’t decide between “The Park” and “The Park at MGM Grand” as the new name for Monte Carlo, so he dubbed it 
Park MGM, which sounds like someplace you leave your car. MGM is already hard at work on the 5,300-seat Park Theatre but doesn’t expect to finish the total property makeover until 2018. Still, Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli assures prospective customers, “Not unlike prior renovation projects, and despite the large scale of this one, we expect limited disruptions to operations stemming from the property overhaul. We anticipate MGM will do room remodels on a floor by floor basis, taking out 10-20% of available room night inventory at a given time as it works through the property.”
Taking a page from Caesars Palace‘s Nobu Hotel, Park MGM will incorporate a 292-room Nomad Hotel, by boutique operator Sydell Group. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sydell will operate it independently of MGM. Amenities will include “a dedicated drop-off lobby and swimming pool as well as separate gaming, dining and drinking experiences.”
* Lawyers for Wynn Everett wrangled yesterday with Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, who claims that the resort will impose an intolerable burden on traffic in the area. Wailed Hizzoner, “this area is surrounded by this transportation infrastructure, 
much of it is not sufficient to meet the needs of a growing urban region today, and although Steve Wynn‘s project is not the cause of the negative traffic conditions that we see in the region today, it will certainly compound them. hey should have gone through a thorough environmental review prior to a permit being issued and they should have to truly and accurately mitigate the negative impacts of that project.” However, Curtatone has already lost his case with the Department of Environmental Protection and is clinging to the slender branch that is waterfront access to the area, which Curtatone says will see increased boating traffic.
Vowing to appeal as far as he can go, Curtatone says, “I’ve made that pretty clear to them and we’ve said it before, this is not about stopping the casino.” Your Honor, with all due respect, you’re full of it. You were opposed to Wynn Everett before it was chosen and you’ve vowed to tie it up in red tape for years. Don’t piss on our heads and tell us it’s raining.
While his legal team was holding down the Everett front, Steve Wynn himself has been playing an unaccustomed role: peace negotiator between Donald Trump and Karl Rove. It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of Wynn helping Trump would have seemed impossible or at least implausible, so bitter was their rivalry. Not to be outdone, Sheldon Adelson has capitulated to the inevitable and pledged $100 million toward Trump’s war chest. And incompetent Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack has floated to the surface again, heading up a pro-Trump super PAC. The thought of Barrack doing to the country what he did to the casino industry makes one shudder.
* Strikes for Kids, a charity bowling event to be held at Sunset Station, rolled a gutter ball with the NFL, which “prohibits players from engaging in promotional activities on the grounds 
of a casino or sportsbook, as well as affiliation or endorsement with gambling-related activities.” The league is being sued after the event had to be relocated to Brooklyn Bowl, which — irony alert — is only a stone’s throw from the Linq hotel-casino. So Strikes for Kids is technically in compliance, but it says it had to cut back on the invitation list, having been moved to a smaller space and was forced to renege on promised $100 gift cards to underprivileged kids. Interestingly, the NFL looked the other way on a 2014 charity event held at South Point. It also took a pass on a Rob Gronkowski “cruise to nowhere” that had shipboard gambling. But it notoriously shot down a National Fantasy Football Convention that Tony Romo was to have held at the Sands Expo & Convention Center (not a casino but connected to one). While the NFL did a good thing by writing out a $50,000 check to Strikes for Kids, it really needs to figure out where its head’s at in this whole players-in-a-casino issue
