Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

A Whole new ballgame

SUN STAFF REPORTS

It's only fitting Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller will be on hand for Tuesday's opening of the Las Vegas Club hotel-casino's expansion.

After all, the $35 million project is highlighted by the addition of an 18,000-square-foot casino decorated as a baseball stadium, complete with brightly painted wall murals depicting cheering fans.

And the hotel-casino will commemorate the expansion with the introduction of a limited-edition $10 gaming chip honoring Feller, who will greet fans and sign autographs inside the sports-themed casino from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Las Vegas Club Vice President Brady Exber said Feller's appearance is open to the public.

"We're thrilled to give our customers the chance to greet one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball," said Exber, whose family owns a majority interest in the 35-year-old property at the corner of Main and Fremont streets.

The expansion includes construction of a 16-story tower that will add 185 rooms and six suites, bringing the total to 415, and boost total casino space to about 40,000 square feet.

Exber said the casino expansion will add 400 slot and video-poker machines, boosting the total to 850, as well as six blackjack tables offering what many knowledgeable 21 players consider the most liberal rules in the world.

"The new casino area will also feature Fremont Street's loosest dollar-slot carousel," said marketing executive Dan Kabala. "It will be the best in the downtown area."

Along the casino's west wall will be a 10-foot-by-10-foot video scoreboard that will feature live sporting events as well as live video of players who have just won slot jackpots or other prizes.

"This will be the only sports-themed casino in Las Vegas, building upon the tradition the Las Vegas Club has established," Kabala said. "It will offer an atmosphere that we believe will be attractive to locals and make them feel they're coming to a fun place."

The expansion will also include a new, larger version of the Dugout coffee shop and add two restaurants -- a gourmet sausage bar and dining area and the Upper Deck, a sports-themed restaurant filled with memorabilia.

The Upper Deck will serve California cuisine in four rooms highlighting football, golf, boxing and basketball themes. The football portion overlooks the new casino area and be decorated as a mini-football field.

The golf room will offer scenic wall murals depicting some of the sport's most famous courses, while diners in the boxing room will be seated in a ring complete with speed bags. The basketball room will be a mini-version of a regulation court.

The Upper Deck restaurant rooms will include video monitors showing clips from historic football, basketball, boxing and golf events.

Exber said he expects the Upper Deck to be a big hit with the Las Vegas Club's customers, many attracted by the property's irreplaceable collection of rare photographs, autographed sports momentos and a collection of baseball bats from the 1946 to 1958 World Series.

The expansion also includes a lushly decorated banquet room that can seat 240 for a gourmet dinner or up to 400 for a lecture or business affair. The Great Moments Room steak room, already a popular downtown eating spot, will undergo few, if any, changes.

Exber said the decision to expand was influenced in part by the success of The Fremont Street Experience and its accompanying pedestrian mall in drawing additional visitors to the area.

"Just as our world-class collection of sports memorabilia made us the first downtown hotel-casino to expand with a distinct theme, this project makes us the first downtown property to capitalize on the increased interest generated by the Fremont Street Experience," he said.

The project will generate more than 200 new jobs, raising the club's total above 725.

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, Exber said, the casino cage will begin selling the $10 Bob Feller gaming chips featuring the likeness of the former Cleveland Indians hurler.

Only 1,500 Feller chips have been produced, he said, the latest in the Las Vegas Club's line of limited-edition chips commemorating sports greats. Other baseball players featured include Babe Ruth, Dizzy Dean, "Showless" Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb.

The Las Vegas Club's most popular sports chip, which honored Olympic great Jesse Owens, sold out within two days of being issued on the 60th anniversary of Owens' performance in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

While the Las Vegas Club will redeem the chips at face value at any time, Exber noted some have been trading above par value among gaming-chip collectors.

When the entire expansion project is completed by mid-November, he said, "We will have built a haven for sports fans."

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