{"id":348838,"date":"2025-10-07T17:48:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/ballys-shares-details-of-delusional-fever-dream-everyone-falls-for-it\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T17:48:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:48:32","slug":"ballys-shares-details-of-delusional-fever-dream-everyone-falls-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/ballys-shares-details-of-delusional-fever-dream-everyone-falls-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Bally’s Shares Details of Delusional Fever Dream, Everyone Falls for It"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n By Scott Roeben<\/a>, on October 07 2025 <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Bally\u2019s Corp. recently shared a new rendering of its plans for the Tropicana site.<\/p>\n

It is easily the most unhinged, delusional, whimsical folly we have ever witnessed in more than a decade of covering Las Vegas, and our town\u2019s history is littered with unmitigated WTF.<\/p>\n

The worst part isn\u2019t that Bally\u2019s has foisted this nonsense on the world (given it will never, ever happen). The worst part is how the vast majority of media outlets reported it with a straight face, implicitly enabling this asinine, mushroom-driven con job.<\/p>\n

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Bally\u2019s prompt to A.I. image generator: \u201cJust put everything in it.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s being shared as though it were based in reality: Bally\u2019s Corp. released a phased development plan for a new resort at the former Trop site which will include a 3,000-room hotel (two towers), casino, 2,500-seat entertainment venue and 500,000 square feet of retail, all built around an imagined ballpark. Construction on the \u201cintegrated resort\u201d is slated to start in the first half of 2026, with the first phase (entry plaza and parking) opening in time for the ballpark\u2019s 2028 debut. The project is estimated to cost $3 billion.<\/p>\n

You think we were kidding about mushrooms?<\/p>\n

Then you haven\u2019t seen the hype video shared by Bally\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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Two luxury hotel towers, 3,000 rooms, a state-of-the-art entertainment venue, and direct access to the new MLB ballpark. The future of the Strip is @BallysLasVegas<\/a>. @BallysCasinos<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/CvJdwPgabv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 DraftKings at Casino Queen (@DKatCQ) October 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To their credit, the chances of a resort on the Tropicana site featuring trained iguanas is roughly the same as anything in the Bally\u2019s rendering ever coming to pass.<\/p>\n

The chances aren\u2019t just remote, they do not exist, at all.<\/p>\n

As we have said for months now, Bally\u2019s Corp. is the perfect partner for the A\u2019s, the MLB team busy building a ballpark on the Trop site despite being a billion dollars-plus short of funding.<\/p>\n

Bullshit loves company.<\/p>\n

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Shout-out to all those sportsball players staring into the Sun when they\u2019re standing at home plate. They LOVE that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everything shared by Bally\u2019s Corp. is almost too absurd to demolish. Almost.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do the boring work of being more specific about why the Bally\u2019s Corp. resort is never happening.<\/p>\n

First, Bally\u2019s doesn\u2019t own the dirt and they\u2019ve been selling off the dirt they do have.
Bally\u2019s has leaned on sale-leasebacks with Gaming & Leisure Properties (GLPI) to raise cash, most recently selling the real estate of Bally\u2019s Kansas City and Bally\u2019s Shreveport to pay down its debt. An asset-light, rent-heavy balance sheet isn\u2019t how you fund a ground-up megaresort.<\/p>\n

Fitch cut Bally\u2019s to a B- rating, citing high leverage and \u201cexecution risk\u201d tied to its Chicago casino that has been an ongoing debacle.<\/p>\n

The Bally\u2019s rendering is a hodgepodge of ideas, none cohesive, and it doesn\u2019t seem to take into account the footprint of the ballpark.<\/p>\n

Groundwork for the alleged A\u2019s ballpark has consumed much of the Trop site. A cost-creeping ballpark smushed into a resort complicates phasing, access, utilities and construction windows. It\u2019s a nightmare.<\/p>\n

Height, acreage and room count math ensure no resort will be profitable on the Trop site if there\u2019s a ballpark built there.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

The Tropicana corner sits inside Harry Reid International\u2019s airspace. Anything 200 feet-plus triggers FAA review. That means Bally\u2019s Corp. can\u2019t build upward to have more rooms, the only thing that could make a resort viable.<\/p>\n

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Render now, make excuses later.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CEO of Bally\u2019s, Soo Kim, said, \u201cIt\u2019s not lost upon me that 75 percent of Vegas revenues are non-gaming.\u201d We\u2019ll say it. There\u2019s actually a lot lost on Soo Kim.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas runs on rooms, casinos and conventions. Betting that shops, restaurants and bars, along with retail shops (there\u2019s already a massive new retail mall, BLVD, nearby) and entertainment can carry a height-capped resort (next to a stadium that will ensure traffic is FUBAR on event days) isn\u2019t in any way realistic.<\/p>\n

Could Bally\u2019s Corp. find an investor or backer to make their muddled plans a reality? No. Could they build smaller? No.<\/p>\n

Based upon the facts and context, and not gushing news stories, the Bally\u2019s Corp. resort plans is aspirational at best. In reality, it\u2019s not happening.<\/p>\n

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Prediction: This isn\u2019t the last time you\u2019ll be looking at this image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All right, kudos to Bally\u2019s rendering artist for the Easter egg.<\/p>\n

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Inappropriate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lack of reality is funny, the lack of skepticism on the part of the media is alarming. We\u2019ve seen this before with All Net and other projects. In that case, it took a decade of us whistling in a wind tunnel before journalists realized it was all a scam with actual victims.<\/p>\n

Very few media outlets or journalists have questioned the sanity of Bally\u2019s Corp. or its leadership. One exception<\/a> is David McKee, who seems to be one of the few keeping his eye on the ball. The audacity! Read another McKee story<\/a> while you\u2019re at it.<\/p>\n

None of this makes any sense.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like the A\u2019s projecting 33,000 fans at every game. It\u2019s just made up, a fantasy based on vapor and the belief people (including investors and financial institutions) are gullible and, frankly, stupid.<\/p>\n

Yes, we\u2019re living in a post-truth world, but this level of sheer audacity and unashamed codswallop is rare. Oh, yes, we said \u201ccodswallop.\u201d That\u2019s Brit for bullshit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bally\u2019s and A\u2019s plans are snake oil, plain and simple. It\u2019s faking it until they make it. It\u2019s a ploy to get support from investors, or to inflate the value of their assets (the team or the development rights of the Trop site).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no magical money miracle in the making. The A\u2019s have been looking for investors for years now, Bally\u2019s is stretched to the limit and is a terrible credit risk.<\/p>\n

The ultimate outcome? Hard to say, but everything we\u2019ve heard to-date means we get an idle site for years to come, until a serious owner buys the A\u2019s and Bally\u2019s Corp. is out of the picture so serious people can build a resort, assuming Las Vegas emerges from its tourism slump (nobody should be adding room inventory to a town that has more supply than demand, fingers crossed, Hard Rock).<\/p>\n

Shame on the media for amplifying these long cons.<\/p>\n

A world without journalism is a world without checks and balances. Swindlers get to ply their trade without resistance or accountability.<\/p>\n

In the absence of real journalism, the grifters write the headlines.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n