Quarterly Earnings Call: MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle On Super Bowl, F1, Athletics Stadium
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Let’s take a look at what MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle had to say about the Super Bowl, the Formula 1 race in November and the planned Athletics baseball stadium on the Strip that is surrounded on three corners by MGM Resorts properties.
LVSportsBiz.com took a look at today’s Q4 2023 earnings report transcript for Hornbuckle’s comments.
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In his comments to analysts:
“With both F1 and Super Bowl, our brand was on full display. Our proximity to Allegiant Stadium, the F1 track, and of course, T-Mobile Arena afforded us the opportunity to expand our reach during these citywide events.”
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In response to a question, Hornbuckle on comparing the F1 impact vs the Super Bowl impact:
Look, F1, when you balance it out year over year was a $50 million to a $70 million. It was actually a $70 million increase year over year. But if I neutralize the year before, it’s about $50 million.
We didn’t run lucky the year before. Super Bowl was amazing. It did — we were always concerned. We do great Super Bowl parties here.
Will it be the kind of event that will drive, given the additional expense of the tickets, etc., etc.? The answer was, hands down, yes, and particularly rooms, and it drove them across the board. Unlike where F1 was isolated to our premium properties, Super Bowl drove it across the board. We had thousands of people in all of our ballrooms in the MGM Grand Garden enjoying the game and enjoying the festivities, and so it was a really successful universal event. Las Vegas showed up, and I think we all did a tremendous job hosting it.
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In response to a question about the Athletics stadium and impact on neighboring MGM Resorts International properties like MGM Grand:
For us, obviously, the place to invest capital, first and foremost, if in fact that all happens, is MGM. I mean, it’s our brand.
It’s our namesake. It’s on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard drop. It would literally be adjacent to the stadium, and it needs some love. It’s a 30-year-old property.
We’re going to reinvest in the rooms this year. We’ve got some new show concepts. We’ve done a few restaurants. But the front end of the property, as you get closer to Las Vegas Boulevard, needs some attention and some reprogramming.
We’re waiting to see where that lands. I have to believe, in the next 30 to 60 days, we should find out more. I’ve been shown three versions of it now in terms of where it will actually sit on the site and how it will connect. Once it settles in, we’ll get serious about what we might want to do and how we might want to communicate with it, if you will, in terms of pedestrian traffic, etc.
But that’s how to think about where we might go first is really MGM and see how it all plays out.
Here’s the entire transcript.
