Green remembered Las Vegas Boulevard casino-hotels including the Dunes, Barbary Coast, Frontier, Silver Slipper, Sands, Desert Inn and Stardust.Īll are now gone, replaced by destination resorts boasting celebrity chef restaurants, shopping, headline nightclubs and periodic resident entertainers.
That course included the casino parking lot near where Evel Knievel spectacularly crashed in 1967 while trying to jump his motorcycle over the hotel fountain. “If you were a Grand Prix devotee and you came here for the event in the early 80s, and this is the next time you visited, you’re in for a shock,” said Green, who was a young newspaper reporter when Caesars Palace hosted two years of F1 racing. Earlier, amid race-week premiums, Caesars Palace offered a five-night stay overlooking the course from its Nobu Sky Villa at $5 million. Rates in September averaged $201.50 per night, but have been slashed in recent weeks. Officials project the event will draw more than $1 billion to a local economy that aims to fill 152,000 hotel rooms.
