Hey there friends and players it’s so great to be together again. Wow I can’t believe it’s been three weeks boy has a march taking me like a lion this year. Some of you may be aware from my Facebook post I am an avid skier and March is my most favorite month of the year. I underestimated the time it takes to produce these weekly shows and articles during my most active month. Sorry I’ve missed you guys but I’ve been having an awesome time in the mountains and it all should be wrapping up in the next couple of weeks. Great work to everyone who kept the conversation going while I was taking a little social media break. Great work Michael, Mark, Judy, Tom ,Robin, and Joyce. I apologize if I missed anyone. You guys are great! Thanks for keeping the conversation going and helping visitors.
The big news is that MGM Springfield signed the deal with the Boston Red Sox to host the Red Sox fan winter weekend in 2020. This will be the sixth annual fan focused event which was previously held the last five years at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The weekend is jampacked with me and greet and photograph with player experiences. Panel discussions, and even a town hall style meeting with players and management. The event is well attended by both current Red Sox players in Boston alumni. The list of last year‘s attending alumni was a Who’s Who from Red Sox past. Guys like Jason Varitek, Jim Rice, and Dennis Eckersley. It seems like a fitting venue that the Red Sox will have their fan fest weekend at Baystate resort casino like MGM Springfield. After all MGM resorts did sign major league baseball to their exclusive sports betting contract. After the AHL All-Star weekend I can only imagine the excitement that this major league baseball fan event will bring to the city of firsts.
With all this talk of baseball might as well talk about the warmer weather and with the warmer weather the folks over at MGM Springfield are saying that they may open up their second floor rooftop pool as early as April. It’s guaranteed to open by May but if the weather continues on a warming trend guest could be taking a dip sooner than later.
Wahlburgers burgers it’s set to open across the street from red Rose on the corner of Union and Main Street by New Year’s Day 2020. The location is not listed as coming soon on the website and a spokes person referred all questions to MGM Springfield management. Allegedly they are still in lease negotiations at the old Dave’s furniture site. Wahlburgers is a franchise business however Springfield falls under a protected territory by Mark and his family. It is reported that they will be the operators of this location.
MGM reported a 9.1% increase in gaming revenues for the month of February. $21.5 million was the total take an increase of $1.8 million from January. The sizable increase could be attributed to their sold out comedy shows that started in mid January. It should be noted that plain Ridge casino the other legal gaming establishment in the eastern part of the state realized little over $200,000 increase in gaming revenue for the month. This number looked promising for MGM Springfield.
Collective Soul and the Gin Blossoms are bringing there Now is the Time to wear to the MGM Springfield Plaza on June 1 at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $59 and are all general admission.
Springfield currently has $4 billion in construction in the works. A new hotel project was announced on the site of the Old York Street Jail location. Pioneer Valley Hotel Group will be building 130 room hotel along with an indoor rock climbing and sky diving center. It is still unknown what flag will fly however the group is an established hotel operations team with such brands as Quinta, Holiday inn and Homewood Suites.
It’s hard to deny the positive impact that MGM’s investment has had on the downtown real estate landscape. MGM Springfield has driven over 2.7 million visitors between their opening in August and February 2019. 49% of those visitors are from out of state. Receipts from the cities 5% hotel tax are up 68%. Which is why you see all of the interest in new hotels downtown. The tower Square hotel is in the middle of their $10 million renovation investment so they can watch again fly the Marriott flag. This is the third new hotel development I’ve heard either announced or rumored of in the last four months. Springfield clearly needs more beds. Don’t worry I’m not gonna get started on my rant about why they should’ve built the big glass tower hotel and a buffet!
Hey hot off the presses while I was writing this show it was reported that the federal government has approved the joint tribal venture MMCT. The tribes today confirming that the United States department of interior has approved their compact and they are free to move forward on their casino project 15 miles south of MGM Springfield in East Windsor Connecticut. I will be following the story as close as I can and report back to you.
Oh my God robots I’ve been making my drinks at the casino! That’s right you heard about it on the closed group MGM Springfield was the first establishment to try out their new robotic bartender which has been mixing all of the gamblers drinks in the back of house. The new machines were implemented as part of their new hundred million dollar cost cutting efforts. Due to the machines success and operation here in Springfield they will be introduced at all Las Vegas hotels this year. Let’s hope that they don’t replace the actual bartenders that are customer facing with robots. The same day I saw this announced I was shopping at Stop & Shop and there was a robot following me around the store. Robots!
I’m not sure if it’s part of the new cost cutting measures but there has been many complaints by Art in the Game members about both the promotional kiosks and the promotional giveaways held on Sundays at MGM Springfield. This week was the beginning of their bedding giveaway and the stories from Sunday sounded horrible. The giveaway didn’t start until 10 AM so those present before hand we’re not able to start the process sooner. The line ended up being about an hour to print out a ticket and another hour to pick up your item. It was reported that the MGM employees collectively couldn’t conjure up a smile for anybody. There’s got to be a better way to do this. It seems like anytime there is a cool promotion or giveaway you have to spend in exorbitant amount of time on property. Of course we understand that they want to have you there and gamble but I have to make it realistic as well. There’s been reports that people have felt like they weren’t chosen on some of the promotional giveaways because of a lack of credit. I’m not sure I can go with that however they are definitely not making it easy to obtain the prizes. As I reported on the last show the five trucks and five weeks giveaway is a really cool promotion however unless you’re willing to stay at the casino Saturday night until 10 or 11 o’clock at night you’re never going to win. Which means I’ll be driving the same old car this year. Wonder if there’s anything in the Massachusetts gaming laws in regards to casino promotions? I think that something I’ll be researching if any of you find anything please post it to the close group. It’s also reported that some of the establishments at MGM Springfield are not offering one for one comps. All our property dining such as chandlers and tap as well as the south and market are one for one with your express comps. However some of the outside vendors like the jewelry store and the candle store are only offering two for one comps. So that $20 Indian motorcycle T-shirt will cost you $40 in express comps. This isn’t unheard of and I can think of several places at Caesars in Atlantic City my most frequented casino where it is a two for one exchange. However due to the fact that there aren’t that many food and shopping choices at MGM Springfield it seems like folks who wish to spend their comps are immediately limited with options. I heard it reported that even the essentials store was requiring two for one cops on anything other than logo material. If that’s true that’s total bullshit. It was also reported by a loyal AITG member that tier multiplier days were no longer applying to food purchases. This is definitely something that I will check on because it should without question be included. In the past it has always worked out however recently folks have been being told that the multiplier only applies to coin in and table gambling. MGM’s M life program allows tear to be collected with hotel and food purchases. This would be an important detail to know the facts of. Since the M life desk has been removed it’s been difficult to find folks who understand the M life here and point accruement process. Hopefully this is just a stutter step or learning curve that will be rectified shortly. I really do not want to begin to think that MGM is going to cheeping up our experience as locals and make things more difficult. There needs to be more value to their elevated player tier system. Or is that just that it’s value becoming something of the past that gamblers well just remember as a fond memory?
I’d like to thank everyone who reviewed my show on iTunes or here on Facebook especially the person who calls himself Meat114! Thanks buddy I loved your review. And thank you for reading to the end of my 20th blog post and listening to my 19th podcast. Be sure to join our conversation in the closed group and like our page on Facebook. Subscribe on iTunes and stitcher. And catch up on everything else on the website. If there’s anything you’d like to know about or wish to contact me you can do so on Facebook or on Twitter or Instagram @ArtintheG
Until next time have Great Luck Players!
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