Are Vegas shows going the way of the Dodo ??

It seems that way.... Even these threads don't get hit up much these days. Any thoughts on what could bring them back other than a reduction of emphasis on the mega clubs like XS, Omnia, etc. ??

 

to be blunt. old people who went to the old vegas shows have died. too many puppet shows or over saturation off shows and not enough people .also diiner isnt 4.99$ buffet anymore ,its now 100$ or per person 3 hour meal so that a show in itself.

also vegas built way to many concert venues and not enough people to go them. casinos think they need 3 or 4 show rooms or one show at 7 pm and another at 10 pm , well that times the amount of hotels forget it stuff will fail.
also depending were your from 50 to 100$ for a show ticket is fine but others more than 25$ they wont go .

people have to rember its not 1980 anymore and vegas is expensive if your not comped.no differnt than nyc or la.

on a side note i went a show at tmobile grabbed drinks at beerhaus after sat at the bar and 90 percent off the people didnt tip and the bartender said thats normal i was shocked. people are tighter with money ,arent used 10 to 20$ drinks or 100$ show tickets.

you cant explain to people from idaho (or other smaller cities) why there drink cost 20$ and there show ticket cost 100$ and there meal was 150$ when there used to spending 20$.its a differnt situation in big cities.

 

I just got back and the group I was with couldn't commit to a show. The one that seemed most interesting was ruled to be too expensive and the rest had been seen or just wasn't interesting enough. They need to find more headliners like Human Nature, I think. But similar attempts to do that reveal most casinos no longer know how to build an audience for shows.

 

Gamblers traditionally got comped tickets to the shows. The conventioneers companies tend to pick up for room and meals but not as many pick up other entertainment costs these days. It doesn't help that while many of the shows are worth the ticket price I would say that over half are grossly overpriced for the grade of entertainment received.

 

The Vegas show crowd is aging out, period, and Vegas isn't keeping up.

Let's be honest, the boomers who would pay to see showgirls and musicals and magicians are slowing down and not taking as many trips. In their place are Gen X and millennials who wouldn't know David Copperfield if he walked up and introduced himself. For the newer generation entertainment is DJ culture, live music, reality shows and video games. The casinos have been slow to react and you're seeing shows dying by the dozens as a result.

Going forward you'll see a continuation of the club scene and more and more 90's and 00's acts doing "residencies", most of the small "Vegas-style" shows will die off with the venues turned into clubs/lounges or live music venues.

 

Price. I'm just not going to pay a huge amount for a show I may, or may not like. Stuff like Big Elvis or smaller venue stuff is fun because it's affordable. The big stuff? I just don't want to pay an arm and a leg.

 

We've seen a few Vegas shows, but at this point - unless it's some sort of mega-once-in-a-lifetime-incredible show, we're not going. It's really not so much about the cost, so much as it is the value. It's not like we're bored and need two-and-a-half hours to kill.

 

considering big elvis is free my point is taken,

 

Touche! I WOULD pay up to $25 though. I know, I know, cheap. But if I'm going to splurge, I want it on something I know I'll like!

Ps I am NOT cheap on tipping. I never, never order a drink if I don't have tip. Shows though, I'm cheap.

 

isnt the thrill of traveling trying differnt things you may or may not like


how do you know if u like it if you dont try it .ur in vegas people come once every few years stuff changes , try something u might like ,


like when u got to nyc u try a broadway play or differnt types of food all over the world. otherwise stay home

i know when ever i travel i get a complete list of stuff to see and do and try to try most becuase ill never be back again.. i always tell people too have an open mind the wurst thing is you lost an hour and a half off your nite.


i took my parents close to 80 years old to see rosie rabit lie and my mom loved it ,who would have thought. mom loved it more than abstinthe.

 

Vegas is in the midst of a culture shift. Oldest generation of visitors now grew up in the 60's with rock and roll, stones, etc. Gen X'ers are now the high wage earners, but also have the obligations of mortgages, kids in college, planning for retirement, etc. My wife and I blow money in Vegas while our friends are staying home because we are DINK professionals with high income, and little to no college debt.

Contrast that to the millennials where 50K in school debt is nothing new, grew up with the internet, messaging or social media is the primary form of communication, and YouTube stars are held in as high regard as traditional movie stars. We also are seeing a shift in show trends. Vegas went thru the Cirque phase, Broadway show phase, and is now in a residency phase.
Since there is higher margins to be made on alcohol sales in clubs, marketing spend has shifted away from show entertainment as a primary revenue stream.

It takes a lot of capital to put on and host a production show with a high risk of return. MGM learned the hard way with two flops at Aria. Headliners offer an established customer base and
outside of any financial commitment to performer, untapped profit with meet and greets and brand advertising.

The millennials are the new growth engine for Vegas so expect more entertainment shift. Married middle age white males are still edging out other demographics for now. These guys aren't coming to Vegas for a show unless they are with their wives. Maybe the nudie ones.

Read more about Vegas stats from the LVCA visitor statistics report. Page 50 has the age and gender profiles.

http://www.lvcva.com/includes/content/images/media/docs/2015-Las-Vegas-Visitor-Profile.pdf

 

Same here. Pay $120 for tickets to a 1.5 hr show isn't my idea of fun (or the best use of my money to me).

 

We did the show thing our first few trips together. We're a younger couple, we do enjoy the theater, but it still didn't take us long to see the ones we thought we wanted to see. With only one or two exceptions we have never left a show thinking it was worth either the time or money. A few trips ago we saw 2 shows and were extremely disappointed by both. Now we have the obligatory "anything you want to see?" chats before our trips and there is nothing that appeals. Many of the shows are just reinventions of the same thing, and virtually all of them are expensive, and although we too are DINKS, the shows no longer have any value for us.

We also tend to keep an EST schedule and we don't really like evening obligations. We tend to get up early, drink and gamble, and we never really know where the day will take us. A show requires a scheduled trip back to the room to clean up and get presentable. So we tend to not really want evening shows. This is the same reason we rarely have a "nice" dinner. We tend to eat on the go and don't like to have to get cleaned up for a reservation.

With the exception of some of the "drop in" style entertainment like dueling pianos or lounge acts I think its safe to say we are probably done with the Vegas shows. At least until we get older and can no longer drink and gamble for 12 hours a day.

 

There is an emphasis on the clubs because that is what the people spending the money want. They voted with their wallets.

You see so much complaining on this board about resort fees or an extra dollar or two spent on a taxi or uber or complaining about rental car prices or the lack of the $1.99 breakfast specials. If you're running a hotel/casino, who would you rather see walk through your doors:

1. Old frugal folks worrying about nickels and dimes with a $25 limit on show tickets or who want to grind it out at a blackjack table for hours where the casino might profit a hundred bucks

2. Young spendthrift folks willing to spend hundreds if not thousands to go a club for the night.

It's a no-brainer the hotel/casinos are profiting a lot more off the younger folks per person and there is a future with them. The hotel/casinos need to develop their customer base for the next 20 years. So, why not cater to their wants and needs?

 

Good point Snidely. I look at my wife and I versus my brother-in-law and his wife. We're both young(er) couples (early-mid 30's), good paying jobs, and take a couple trips to Vegas a year.

My wife and I are gamblers, we spend entire days in the casinos, do a lot of gambling and sportsbetting, drink comp drinks, receive comp rooms, get comps on back-end. Some casinos take us for money, but we seem to have good luck and we are often up on some casinos we visit (often thanks to sportsbetting). While we spend money, on a typical 7 night trip we may be out of pocket a total of $1,000 for meals and expenses, not counting gambling after comps.

My brother-in-law and his wife gamble, but its more of a side-show for them, spending a couple hours a day at it. They don't use a card and don't receive comps (that I'm aware of). They go to expensive restaurants and clubs and they will buy drinks from the bar as often as getting it comped while gambling. They only stay 3-4 nights but spend thousands in the process.

Although my wife and I more closely resemble the "degenerate vegas couple" one envisions the casinos wanting, I have no doubt my bro-in-law and his wife are more consistently profitable - they will never leave Vegas up, something my wife and I hope to do every trip.

 

This is all true and you are right. But if a hotel was doing it right, they would cater to both groups. Because eventually people WON'T pay hundreds or thousands to go to the hot club (or there will be a hotter club and yours won't be popular) so you need other demographics to make up for it.

It's just like my company - I work in the consulting side of the engineering world and my line of work (municipal) was been steady with small amounts of growth over the past 10 years. We do (did) a ton of work in the oil fields that caused our profits to really jump up. If we would have put all of our eggs in that basket, we'd be bankrupt now with the price of oil where it is. Now the company is thankful for the steady municipal work because the oil work is basically gone.

 

There are still a fair number of shows, but places run them until they die and hardly anyone innovates new ones anymore.

Generally I fill my show needs by looking for headliners or temporary residencies.

 

Mirage is a bit like this, for comedians anyway. It has some resident shows, but also alternates bringing in standups for fridays and saturdays. This is one thing I keep my eyes on when planning my dates.

 

I remember reading a few years ago about how hard it is to know what shows will be successful in Vegas. Shows like Avenue Q, Spamalot that did very well on Broadway didn't make it Vegas but Lion King and Phantom did very well in Vegas.

As far as show needs, I'll go just the opposite and search out wacky shows you can only see in Vegas. I'm usually much happier with those shows.