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Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014 | 2 a.m.
How do you quantify confidence in the viability of the north end of the Strip?
At SLS, it's not difficult. Just check the room rates during two weekends in May when Rock in Rio USA drops in across the street.
At this writing, the Friday and Saturday rates for May 8-9 and May 15-16 are $378 for traditional rooms. The Thursday rate for that week, which is more in line with what rooms typically go for, is $159.
So it's not a shock when SLS President Rob Oseland says, 'We're super-excited about Rock in Rio coming in across the street, because the consumer enjoying that experience is our target market, and the fact that we'll have two weekends with several hundred thousand people coming across the street is a great moment for our hotel, no question.
'We are seeing early demand specifically because of Rock in Rio. We are lucky, in our location, and because MGM Resorts has decided to move forward with this relationship.'
The Rock in Rio festival is scheduled to return in 2017 and 2019, though officials who stage the event say an annual event in Las Vegas has not been ruled out. The vast acreage will be used for other mass-gathering events, too, as its official title is the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds. One longtime Vegas resort official said it would not be a surprise to see the Route 91 Festival, which just played three nights at the MGM Village across from Luxor, outgrow the Village within three years and move north to the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds.
Stratosphere, too, can be expected to ramp up room rates when Rock in Rio opens. Turnout for the festival is being compared to back-to-back New Year's Eve crowds on that heretofore-darkened parcel.
About 300,000 fans are expected to attend. The first wave of acts announced last month in New York include some real heavyweights: Metallica, Taylor Swift, No Doubt, Linkin Park, John Legend and Deftones. Construction has started on the 40-acre grounds. Six performance stages are being erected amid such attractions as a Ferris wheel, a zip line running over the crowd at the main stage, retail kiosks built as houses, and dozens of strolling performers.
That main stage is of particular fascination to Oseland and his team. It's a beautifully designed performance space with LED screens - and it backs up to the SLS marquee facing the Strip. There is no better free advertising than to have your resort's logo in full view of a few hundred thousand music fans firing photos and posting across social media.
'I like the diversification of the lineup, which is terrific, and clearly created not as a one-dimensional platform but to appeal to fans of multiple genres of entertainment,' Oseland said. 'I had been exploring this like anyone else through the media, and when I saw the renderings, I thought, 'This is going to be bigger than the public is anticipating.' It is a major event, an international event, and will increase the visitation to the SLS and benefit us a lot as the closest, newest hotel right across the street.'
There still is some growth to experience at SLS, site of the old Sahara. But it seems the resort will receive some welcome business from the other SLS - Sand Lot Space - across the way.
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