Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 10:48 a.m.
Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., the company that owns the new Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, will change its name at its annual shareholder meeting in June.
What the company will change its name to is anybody's guess, and the company is not saying. But the curious can rest assured it will in some way reflect the company's new commitment to everything "snazzy, smart and cool."
"The way to sell entertainment to the consumer of the future is by being fresh, first and fun," said company President Glenn Schaeffer, speaking at a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday.
Circus' new Mandalay Bay resort reflects the company's commitment to the "hip, modern architecture of fun," he said. As such, the company will abandon the name it took years ago from its Circus Circus hotel-casino on the Strip.
"We will change the name of the company this year at the annual shareholders meeting," said Schaeffer.
Circus also owns the Luxor and Excalibur hotel-casinos just north of Mandalay Bay. The company has no plans to change the name of the Circus Circus hotel-casino.
In addition to announcing a name change, Schaeffer said business is booming at Mandalay Bay, which opened just one week ago. The resort's reservation lines handle an average of 7,000 phone calls each day, and occupancy and room rates are strong, he said.
"We at Circus have seen no effect on our other properties," said Schaeffer.
In fact, the Luxor continues to perform better than it did one year ago, he said.
Schaeffer also said the company has changed its plans for the shopping center that will be built between Mandalay Bay and Luxor. Last week, officials were putting the shopping center at 1 million square feet. Wednesday, Schaeffer said it will be up to 1.5 million square feet in size.
"It's gotten a little bigger," said Schaeffer.
The shopping center will be "a little village," said Schaeffer, and will further the Mandalay Bay complex's overall appeal to youth and those who like things hip.
"You will sell more products to the Americans of the future by hitching them to youth and fun than anything else," Schaeffer said.
The $950 million Mandalay Bay resort features 3,700 guest rooms, a 135,000-square-foot casino, and such eye-catching amenities as a pool that propels 6-foot surfable waves toward a man-made beach, bars with flaming walls and ice furniture, a four-story wine rack whose bottles are accessed by "wine angels" via rock climbing harness and cable and a House of Blues nightclub.
But the Mandalay Bay business plan is not based entirely on appealing to youth culture. Schaeffer said the company hopes Mandalay Bay will generate 12 to 15 percent of its business from conventions booked into its 125,000-square-foot convention center within a few years. Aiding in that effort is the high-end Four Seasons hotel, a non-gaming resort with private entrance and entertainment areas that occupies four floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel tower.
"The Four Seasons hotel will be part of that equation," said Schaeffer.
As for the future of Circus -- or whatever Circus will soon be called -- Schaeffer said the company will build new casino resorts south of Mandalay Bay once the city is through the current "supply bulge."
And while the Excalibur and Circus Circus hotel-casinos appeal to different demographics than Mandalay Bay, all other company properties will be positioned, like Mandalay Bay, as young, fresh, "rock n roll" places to be, he said.
The company has no plans to expand into Atlantic City, and it and its Detroit partner will have a temporary casino open in Detroit by Labor Day, said Schaeffer. Its temporary and later permanent casinos in Detroit will be themed "urban chic," Schaeffer said.
Schaeffer spent most of his luncheon speech talking about Circus' new commitment to "hip" and "cool" marketing and branding. Circus is working under the assumption that the Baby Boomer generation is refusing to grow old, and is attracted to youth culture no matter what its age.
"Baby Boomers are refusing to grow old," said Schaeffer. "They don't want another refrigerator, they want action. They're spenders, not savers."
He called the new casinos coming online in Las Vegas "entertainment superstores," and argued that Mandalay Bay's youth-culture focus will help it fare well against the competition.
"The youth image is essential to branding," said Schaeffer.
He also said Las Vegas is on the leading edge of entertainment center development.
"These best-of-class products do not have any rival anyplace else," said Schaeffer. "If there's a leading edge in store design, it's happening right now."
Las Vegas has the edge, he said, because unlike other cities restaurant and store developers here can build their entertainment offerings from scratch, integrating the outside with the inside.
"Only in Las Vegas are we designing the whole flow, from the outside in," said Schaeffer.
He poo-pooed questions about the effects of other markets and Indian gaming in California on Las Vegas, noting that Circus market research finds people choose their resort destinations on the basis of far more than the simple existence of gambling.
"They go for the totality of the experience," said Schaeffer.
The unique entertainment offerings available here give consumers in California and other markets many reasons to choose Las Vegas over their local Indian casino, he said.
"This is what they don't have back home," said Schaeffer. "this is what you can't wire into a home entertainment system."
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