Like sand through the hourglass, details continue to spill in the melodrama that is the Las Vegas Mob Experience at Tropicana. Most pressing is that a new management team is lumbering in, Cavalry-like, to take over operation of the embattled attraction.
The new lineup of attraction-literate consultants will likely be in place within the month.
Meanwhile, ticket prices at the Mob-ified, $25 million, 26,000-square-foot interactive walking tour will be dropped from $40 to $30 as of Monday. This is in response to a drumbeat of complaints from visitors who say they would have a far more enjoyable experience at the Experience if the ticket prices were lowered. (Weekly sister publication, Las Vegas Sun is involved in a cross-promotional agreement with the attraction in which it shares photo and video content in exchange for brand placement.)
At the executive level, I’m hearing reliably that the LVME’s former manager, Jay Bloom, is no longer involved in the proposed Star Wars-themed museum on The Strip. In June, Bloom submitted plans to the Clark County Commission to open the two-story entertainment and retail center between Monte Carlo and New York-New York. The attraction’s promising name: “Stars Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination.”
At the moment, it’s all imagination, this faux-Death Star. Interviewed on July 5, the day it was announced he would be leaving the LVME project, Bloom said of the Star Wars plans, “A lot has to happen for that attraction to go forward.” Time for a visit to Yoda, maybe.
At the time, Bloom also indicated that he is still involved in The Mob Experience as the manager of Eagle Group Holdings, which owns the attraction and leases space from the Trop. But Louis Ventre, Bloom’s business partner, is in fact running day-to-day operations until the attraction’s management group is put in place. This week, one source familiar with the operation said Bloom had “no connection whatsoever” today to The Mob Experience. Bloom once booked acts into the Gladys Knight Theater, too, but that foray also has petered out.
Responding to a text message asking if it were true he has no involvement in the LVME attraction, and that he also is no longer active with the Star Wars museum-entertainment project, Bloom said he could not comment publicly at this time.
Meanwhile, it’s business as usual at The Mob Experience, where what is “usual” is always in the eye of the beholder.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow "Kats With the Dish" at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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