The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New casino adds sizzle to border battle
Pride of place as MGM Springfield rises from storm ruins
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Amid triumphant speeches about a phoenix rising in this old western Massachusetts city — a tornado in 2011 wrecked a third of the downtown, you recall — MGM Springfield opened two weeks ago with a colorful whirl of joy and community pride.
The Bay State’s governor, legislators, gaming commission chief, labor officials, vendors, designers, Springfield’s mayor and MGM officials preceded the crush of opening weekend visitors with Vegasflavored ceremonies, including entertainment by the Blue Man Group, and a blacktie preview party that night to celebrate the $960 million casino development.
The CEO of MGM, James Murren, talked about his area roots as a Trinity College grad and about Springfield’s list of historic firsts: as in National Armory (1777), first American dictionary, invention of basketball, the monkey wrench, gas-powered car and first American motorcycle company (Indian, which has a store facing the courtyard of the new complex).
Add to the list the first MGM casino in New England, after years of battles, hearings and votes to site at least two new resorts in the Bay State. Connecticut’s own Land of Oz-like resorts in eastern Connecticut naturally are concerned about new challenges to their business. And Nutmeg State leaders are worried about lower revenues from their 25 percent cut of slot machine business at those locations.
Forget Yankees vs. Red Sox; this is a border battle for bucks.
Murren slipped in a couple of digs for Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which sought their own piece of the Bay State pie but instead had to settle on a counterpoint facility in East Windsor that has earned legislative approval but has met a speed bump or two. MGM, meanwhile, says it wants to build a casino on the Bridgeport waterfront.
The only thing certain right now is that MGM is open in a far different location than the Connecticut casinos. Instead of rural and isolated, it sits just off I-91 downtown, flanked by city streets and older buildings, with free parking in a new selfpark garage and restaurant doors that open to city streets. If you miss the right turn for the garage, your trip around the block is slowed by one-way streets and city traffic. The property features wings of new shops on-site, but there are a few sketchy-looking properties on surrounding streets.
Business has been brisk at the new facility, but without a tour you might miss some of the more sublime elements built into the design, based on designers and MGM listening to locals about the city’s history and character. There are nods to literature and industrial contributions (its 252-room hotel lobby and rooms are decorated with such industrial chic elements), not to mention the castle-looking Armory building behind the casino that was restored and is now available for special functions.
“We rescued skylights, bank vaults, exterior facades from crumbling buildings,” said Murren, noting workers also moved an entire church to a new location.
Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno spoke of more than 3,000 unionized workers at MGM and the “good four-letter word” of jobs at the casino, as community leaders cheered nearby at the mention of an estimated 1,000 jobs for Springfield residents.
“I run into people every day that have told me their family members and friends are so excited because they’re now working for MGM...” Sarno said.
And as one worker pointed out to us, many of the new employees come from Connecticut, which is involved in a running debate about putting highway tolls up near the state lines to collect from out-ofstate motorists.
And while the state’s casinos have painted this as a matter of life and death for their business, consider the scale of the new place compared to Connecticut’s pair.
The new casino has 125,000 square feet of gaming space, with 2,550 slot machines, 120 tables and a poker room. There are two regular sit-down restaurants (Chandler Steakhouse and Cal Mare Italian), the Tap Sports Bar with builtin bowling alley, a tasty food court called South End Market, a seven-screen movie theater and a boutique hotel with outdoor pool.
Mohegan and Foxwoods each have more than 300,000 square feet of gaming space, more than 5,000 slot machines, 250-300 tables and three dozen restaurants — apiece. MGM may have 252 hotel rooms but Mohegan Sun has 1,563 and Foxwoods has 2,266.
As for entertainment venues, MGM has a backof-the-Armory plaza for outdoor concerts and other family events, which is nice. MGM is also programming the MassMutual Center nearby, where 250 homeless folks were once housed after the tornado. Stevie Wonder performed there on Sept. 1. And it has
the concert called MGM Springfield Celebrates The Music of Prince at (also nearby) Symphony Hall on Sept. 18.
Murren said he remembers seeing the Kinks at the MassMutual arena (formerly known as the Springfield Civic Center) when he was in college. He then said that MGM is much bigger (as a corporation presumably) than Mohegan Sun and would score the biggest names in entertainment going forward.
That seems hyperbolic. The Mohegan Sun Arena seats 10,000 people; Foxwoods has the 4,000-seat Grand Theater and 1,932seat Fox Theater — all onsite. There’s a comedy club at Mohegan, a Tanger shopping mall at Foxwoods.
And Connecticut’s casinos, anticipating the new competition (a new slot parlor just opened in Rhode Island and a big Wynn casino will open next year on Boston Harbor) have been on a multiyear building spree, adding a skyhigh zipline, other outside thrill rides, a convention and expo center, kart racing, a few fresh new restaurants and other amenities.
So give storm-struck Springfield its time in the sun, its jobs, its civic pride and its chance to spark an economic rebirth. Competition breeds innovation and a quest for excellence (if also some problem gamblers, alas). The only real enemy for the casinos in both states will be a big downturn in the economy, which will keep visitors away more ruthlessly than competition.