LAS VEGAS -- Seeking
a revival, the oldest section of the city built on neon is banking
big this week on the peculiar combination of the unveiling of
the world's largest LED display and the premiere of a new reality-television
show.
Long-struggling downtown Las Vegas, decades removed from its
glory days as the hub of gambling and civic life, has watched
in recent decades as the Strip's mammoth mega-resorts supplanted
it as the key attractions in Sin City.
The revival effort will become more earnest than ever tonight
as the city celebrates the debut of a new Vegas-set TV show
on FOX, ''The Casino," by broadcasting it on the a four-block-long
light-emitting diode (LED) display called the Fremont Street
Experience.
The endeavor marks one of the most unusual downtown revitalization
efforts in the country.
The Experience is an arched metal canopy lined by 10 casinos
that looms over a pedestrian-only section of the region's oldest
street. It is not a new attraction: A rotating schedule of free,
eye-popping, eight-minute animated musical shows has been displayed
on its underside at the top of after-dark hours since it was
built in 1995. But this $17 million upgrade to LED bulbs from
incandescent lamps is seen as a dramatic improvement.
With this change, engineers can produce sharper, brighter
animation, as well as broadcast taped and live video. The picture
resembles HDTV because the LED display has three times as many
lights than the old incandescent one. It also can show more
than 16 million colors, said Danny Murphy, operations manager
for the Experience.
''In the past, we've had to dumb down our production quality
to make it look good because of the limitations," Murphy said.
''Before, you could barely make out the faces on the dancing
girls. Now they'll look like girls instead of blobs of hair."
Until today's unveiling, the largest publicly displayed LED
screen was the 10,800-square-foot NASDAQ billboard on the Conde
Nast headquarters in New York City's Times Square. That billboard
is primarily an advertising or news-broadcasting vehicle with
no accompanying audio.
At about 400 feet long by 90 feet wide, the Fremont canopy
is more than three times the size of the NASDAQ billboard. But
it is primarily an entertainment attraction. Fremont officials
said LG Electronics will be promoted in ways the company declined
to disclose as part of the deal that led the firm, based in
South Korea, to provide $5 million in equipment for the upgrade.
Officials from Vegas casinos and the city, both of which contribute
to the public-private partnership that built and maintains the
Experience, hope the improvements will lure millions of tourists
from the Strip about 5 miles south.
''The new canopy is such an extreme technological advancement
that it's astounding," said Mike Darley, vice president and
general manager of Fitzgerald's Casino, which sits on the canopy's
west end. ''It's such a unique product and delivery system that
will really invigorate the downtown area."
That's what leaders promised in 1995, when the Experience
first arrived. Gaming revenue for the downtown casinos surged
5.8 percent that year to $678.9 million, but then revenue has
slid or increased in tiny increments since, according to figures
from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The take
for 2003 was $658 million, a 3 percent drop since the canopy's
debut, the authority statistics indicate. By contrast, the casinos
on the Strip pull in more than $5 billion in gaming revenue
each year.
Some observers question whether the light show can jump-start
an area with aging buildings and fewer opulent rooms and amenities
than the Strip, as well as a reputation for seediness.
That has made for a difficult decline -- from the early 20th
century, when Fremont Street was the city's first paved road,
and in 1931, when the first casino opened.
City leaders and casino owners concede that the 1995 effort
didn't stick, because ''there was nothing else to go with it,"
said Terry L. Caudill, Four Queens Casino and Hotel owner. But,
they say, this time there is.
Specifically, the new Experience debuts with the ''The Casino,"
a 13-episode summer series from Mark Burnett, producer of ''Survivor"
and ''The Apprentice.". This time, Burnett's cameras track a
couple of months in the lives of a pair of 35-year-old Internet
millionaires who last year bought a signature downtown property,
the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.
Tim Breitling and Vegas native Tom Poster are telegenic college
pals who made their fortune selling their online hotel-booking
service, Travelscape.com, to Expedia for $100 million in 2000.
Breitling said the show is like ''The Love Boat," the ABC hit
of the '70s and '80s, except that it is set in a casino. For
much of the drama, the show uses the tension of running a new
casino as well as the antics of real guests -- losing big money,
getting married, and indulging in Vegas's other sordid offerings.
''It's going to be a tremendous boost for all of us," said
Caudill, who bought the Four Queens in mid-2003 and is one of
several new downtown property owners to arrive in the past two
years. ''If the show is anything close to true reality, it's
going to give the country a new perception of what goes on down
here and that will be very, very good."
A number of non-entertainment projects aim to help the downtown
recovery, said Doug Lien, director of downtown redevelopment
in Las Vegas. Lien pointed to a $61 million high-rise luxury
condominium project about to go up and a 7.5-million-square-foot
furniture emporium under construction as proof that the area
may become more livable and more economically diverse. Plus,
a planned monorail system to link the Strip to downtown is slated
to open by 2007.
But Lien and others acknowledged that the new, improved Fremont
Street Experience is the linchpin for the rest of these efforts.
''If we can come up with a new reason, like the new technology,
and give them a compelling reason to come down here, they'll
come," said Joseph R. Schillaci, Experience president and CEO.
''We're never going to be the number one attraction in Las Vegas,
but if we can raise our status from eighth to fifth . . . that
would be a nice upswing."
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