Caesars Palace/MGM Grand coincidence???

I touched on asking this question in a different thread a while ago, but don't think it was answered. I'm sure some vegas historian can answer

Is there a story behind the MGM Grand being on the CET side of the street, and caesars palace being on the MGM side of the street or is this purely coincidence?

 

Originally the MGM grand was center strip. It is now Ballys. In 1980 there was a big fire that killed 87 people, mostly from people stuck in the upper floors who died from smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide and toxic chemicals. There were no sprinklers in many areas and the hotels bypassed sprinkler codes at the time. The building people thought that places occupied 24 hours a day wouldn't need sprinklers because a fire would be noticed and put out but the fire occurred in a restaurant that was no longer open 24 hours a day so nobody noticed the fire until it was too late. MGM sold the place to Bally's in 1985.

Not sure about CP but from old pictures I thought that CP was one of the original hotels in vegas.

 

Coincidence, I guess. The current corporate configuration of the Strip is the result if multiple mergers and acquisitions. Can't recall the name of the book off the top of my head, but I recall reading a history written by a WSJ reporter that shows the corporate development of the Strip from the Sarno days through MGM/Mirage Resorts merger

 

Thanks for that. I was not aware the current mgm grand was not the original mgm grand, if that makes sense!

 

thanks. so it wasn't always as symmetrical as it currently is. it must be interesting to see the different hotels chopping and changing over the years

 

oh wow thanks, I will certainly have a look through those.

from the inexperienced eye, it looked as if they each had a hotel on their competitors side as a kind of turf war!

 

Definitely not symmetrical. I started going to vegas in 2003 and my memory of that time was that Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur (and I think Circus Circus) all belonged to one company; NYNY, MGM Grand, Monte Carlo, Mirage, TI, and Bellagio were a different company (what you now think of as MGM); CET did not yet include Caesars Palace; Planet Hollywood belonged to another company and was still the Aladdin; no CityCenter yet; Wynn was under construction; and I think Cromwell was owned by someone else and still called Barbary Coast. A lot of consolidation since then

 

Just the way it worked out. If you look at the facts and dates enough, you will find that TI, Mirage, Bellagio and 50% of Monte Carlo was started and owned by Mirage Resorts (founded by Steve Wynn of Wynn/Encore) before selling to MGM in 2000.

 

In the late 1990's, Hilton Hotels spun off a separate division called Park Place because they didn't want the Hilton brand to be associated with casinos. Park Place owned Ballys, Flamingo, Paris and Hilton (and maybe another, I forget). Park Place bought Caesars Palace in the early 2000's. At the time, I believe Harrahs only owned Harrahs hotel, and in the mid 2000's bought Park Place which included at least 5 major properties. Harrahs changed its name to Caesars shortly after buying Park Place. They purchased Planet Hollywood in the late 2000's and Rio in the mid 2000's.

 

I knew some of this stuff, but some I'd forgotten or not heard. The history is so interesting.