Bally's: 'Flagship' Las Vegas resort will help 'keep our eyes on the prize'

Would you mind taking us through the first rendering of Bally's Las Vegas and what the property will represent for the city?

It's going to be a flagship right on the Strip. The type of experience we're trying to bring is not necessarily just on game days, where this will be active. The benefit of this ballpark is that it sits in this sweet spot that Allegiance is a little too big for a lot of acts, and T-Mobile is a little too small. It's just a better experience. You get higher-end customers, you can sell more premium, better advertising, etc.

The commission has said there's going to be 120 events at the ballpark between 81 home baseball games, concerts and other events. I personally think you're going to be easily north of that 120 after the first couple of years once it starts to gain traction. Especially considering the peak of baseball is actually in the slower period of visitation, the summer, when it's very hot in Vegas. When there's really no baseball going on for those four or five months in the winter, that's when Vegas is really busy and hopping.

We've started outreach, we're getting a lot of inbound inquiries and had a bunch of meetings during G2E. You'll see there's a casino floor, which is about 100,000 square feet. You got the little Bally's logo and that is going to be your traditional slots and tables, and we also have a very unique offering where this event casino will also tie into the theatre, as well as offer a VIP entrance and lounge experience into the ballpark itself.

There's some considerations we've got to take into account from a regulatory standpoint, but we're super excited about that. Every couple of weeks there's meetings with the Commission and their various departments to work through and we're hopeful in the next couple of months we are green lit on being able to start submitting for permits. A lot of this stuff comes with a year's lead time, which is kind of mind-blowing, but also pretty cool.

How can Bally's Las Vegas differ from fellow Strip properties such as MGM, Caesars and Wynn?

I think the experience here is going to be more indoor and outdoor than others on the Strip. It's not all encompassed in this one mega resort that is almost cavernous where people routinely struggle to find their way around. I feel as if every property is a little different, but with some you're kind of walking in circles even when you're not, and with the newer properties, it's a totally different experience versus some that were built 20-30 years ago from a true gaming floor standpoint.

This will be unique and it'll have a little bit of something for everybody. If you think about baseball, the sport is so middle America. A lot of the Strip properties we see now are not middle America. Baseball dominates that region and we feel those core customers and clientele are what we're trying to target here in terms of potential tenants and partners we want on the site.

With Las Vegas experiencing a dip in tourism lately, what could Bally's new resort offer to help offset future visitation slowdowns?

This will be something that is not just for tourists, I think locals are going to want to come and experience this also. I would say the focus on more immersive and interactive entertainment tenants on the site is going to be important and where you can get a little bit more stickiness. Driving some locals in, but also having folks come from up and down the Strip, even outside of our hotels.

There are roughly 12,000 rooms around us between the three MGM properties, so we'll be able to leverage those and we're also planning for a boarding station where visitors can quickly get from end-to-end or come right from the airport. That'll be important especially on game days when there's a lot of volume and traffic on site or even event days. If you're going to have a concert with 30,000 people, this whole place is going to be busy. Leveraging the traffic of people and everything around us as the Strip starts to build further south, it essentially elongates that room for tourism.

Can opportunities to integrate the Bally's brand into Las Vegas be found through activations with the A's, similar to that of the Raiders or Golden Knights?

You know that's a really good question. We've talked about how we can partake in their community benefits program, where do we give access, do we give space for youth participation. Many of the ideas we've had on the site potentially have some interactive studios element where you get tourists that would come in for batting cages or some sort of fitness regime. I think with the right mix of tenants, this site is just going to absolutely kill it.

Are you able to speak on the confidence Bally's has in its proposal for a New York commercial casino license?

New York is transformational. It's obviously been a process that a lot of folks were very interested in. When we started, there were 11 bids or competitors that were announced, and over time, they dwindled down and got eliminated or withdrew for whatever reason. I think it would be transformational for the company, just in terms of the size and scale of the opportunity itself. We're extremely excited about that.

I'm actually at a conference right now where we're meeting with a bunch of folks on that project. We're down to three, and we don't know if we're going to have it or not, but we need to plan as though we are. We're certainly ready to go if we get one.

Does Bally's foresee New York eventually challenging the gaming landscapes found in Las Vegas or Atlantic City?

Vegas is always going to be Vegas. I don't think anything will ever be comparable to Las Vegas. Even when you talk about Macau, it's just different, Vegas is the gaming capital of the world. New York's a great opportunity, though. It's a different type of destination just from an experience standpoint and what the offering is.

If you take a look at that program, it's more focused on the casino portion, but you have a 500-room hotel instead of a very large integrated resort with a ballpark. You start with a casino and hotel, but then it all scales a little bit differently. They're different worlds, experiences, locations, but they are still completely unique offerings in their own right.

Have you found Las Vegas to showcase a greater focus on entertainment value as much as gaming in recent years?

200%. Take a look at 10-20 years ago and the shift which has occurred. It used to be ⅔ gaming and ⅓ non-gaming. A decade ago, it would have been somewhere around 50/50, maybe 60/40, and this is right where it started to flip. Now, it's probably a third gaming, maybe less depending on the property, and more focus on food and beverage, hotel experience, spa and unique entertainment.

What are Bally's strategic goals as the industry prepares to enter 2026?

Staying focused and keeping our eye on the prize. We want to keep building in Chicago, we're making huge progress there. In Vegas, getting shovels in the ground, obtaining permits and seeing the A's project come together. Hopefully, in due time, we'll be able to talk a little bit more about New York if we are blessed and successful there. Those are the three biggest things I'm focused on for the future.