Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

OPINION:

Hard Rock Hotel opens arms to women, conventions

Hard Rock Hotel convention

Courtesy

Last month, the steel structure was completed on the Hard Rock Hotel’s convention center expansion.

Jody Lake

Jody Lake

Who really arrived at the observation that Hard Rock Hotel is a decidedly masculine resort? Was it Jody Lake, who runs the hotel? Or was it actor Channing Tatum, who is producing a male revue set to open next spring at the Hard Rock?

Probably Lake.

“Hard Rock has been a very male-centric property for a long time,” Lake said recently. “We need a more female audience. It’s like the old saying, ‘If we build it, they will come,’ and we are absolutely working toward entertainment for females and retail for females that will grow our customer base.”

Enter Tatum, who is bringing “Magic Mike Live” to the hotel in the former Body English nightclub venue. In its underground fortress off the casino floor, Body English has a mercurial history at the Hard Rock. There’s a saying around the property that you are a true Las Vegan if you attended both openings of the space — first in 2004, when it was turned over from the nightclub Baby’s, and again in 2013, before it closed for good in 2015. And soon, it will be a new nightspot called Club Domina, with the revue set to open in March in a fully refurbished, 360-degree, 450-seat venue.

“One thing I got was that the Hard Rock was a too male-heavy casino,” Tatum said in mid-May. “It’s the place where a very female-targeted show can evolve.”

When that comment was relayed to Lake, the chief operating officer, he chuckled and said, “I think Channing got that from me.”

Regardless, the effort at Hard Rock, beyond the attention to female clientele, is to expand across the demographic. In May, the hotel celebrated completion of the steel structure on its convention center expansion on the parcel facing Paradise Road. The Hard Rock might not seem like a convention hotel, but the added 18,000 square feet fill a need and will help the hotel book its rocking acts at existing venues.

“We never had the proper exhibit space, which we need, other than to push shows into the Joint,” Lake said, referring to the hotel’s 3,000-capacity concert hall. “At times, we have groups competing for the Joint, taking up dates, and that has created a challenge in bringing shows to the venue.”

The new space will allow for performances in a ballroom-style setting, but most importantly it will bring conventions and meetings into a proper location. They’ve been locking up the Joint (and to a lesser degree, Vinyl and the Body English venue) for several days at a time.

“I think the person who was happiest with the convention expansion was Chas Smith,” Lake said, referring to his hotel’s vice president of entertainment.

Last fall, the Hard Rock overhauled one of its signature hot spots, the Center Bar, and it just closed Ainsworth sports lounge for Goose Island Pub, which opens this month. To-be-announced shops are being planned for the end of this year. And the hotel’s convention center should be open this winter.

What’s left for the spring of 2017 is “Magic Mike,” almost two years in the making, as Lake wondered if his hotel was the right fit. “I scratched my head for months about this,” Lake said, “but after a while, it became a no-brainer. I’m actually disappointed I didn’t see it sooner, but it is definitely something our property needs.”

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