Las Vegas Weekly

July 18, 2008 · 6 AM

Caesars Palace gets the jump on New Year’s Eve spectacle

By Robin Leach

Mike Metzger performs his back flip over the Caesars Palace fountains in May 2006. The hotel, and Robbie Knievel, have something even more over-the-top planned for New Year's Eve.

Photo: Caesars Palace

For some unknown reason, the fountains at Caesars Palace have held a mystical and myth-making fascination for daredevils, stunt guys and motorcycle mavericks. Maybe it’s the spectacular setting at center Strip? Maybe because the legend has played out with Caesars and Cleopatra and the 200,000 spectators who pass by each day? Maybe it’s because Caesars has always prided itself as the Vegas home of unique and unusual sporting events?

Luxe Life has learned that the Fox TV network has been in ongoing talks with Robbie Knievel, who is following in the footsteps of his legendary stuntman father to reprise his 1989 motorcycle jump across the top of the fountains. Robbie executed it perfectly to honor his father who had failed the same ill-fated jump 22 years earlier on New Years Eve 1967for an ABC-TV broadcast. (Fun fact: actress Linda Evans was the camera girl back then because she was married to John Derek, who was the stunt’s director!) Now Robbie wants to do it again this coming New Years Eve as part of the Fox New Years Eve spectacular live broadcasts stretching from Times Square in New York to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

“Evel was without doubt the daredevil’s daredevil and still a gentleman with a heart of gold,” Caesars President Gary Selesner said when Evel died just after Thanksgiving last year. Robbie became the first person to clear the famous fountains, and was followed by American Freestyle Motocross X-Games champion Mike Metzger, who became the first rider to complete a back flip over the attraction. I met Mike –- at which time he showed me the word PAIN tattooed inside his mouth -- back in May 2006 at Caesars, when he also set the record for distance landing 125 feet from takeoff. (For the record that was beaten with a back flip and a 160-foot jump -- but not at Caesars -- by Jeremy “Twitch” Sternberg)

Details haven’t been released yet, but Robbie wants to make his new jump even more unique and special to guarantee a New Year’s Eve ratings winner for Fox. He’ll also be competing with NBC’s Carson Daly, who will be anchoring the Peacock Network’s live telecast from Times Square, which is also planning Vegas live segments to bridge the three-hour time difference between the two coasts!

Robbie, who rides high-performance Honda CR-500 motocross bikes, has set 20 world records with more than 250 spectacular jumps, including the 1999 Grand Canyon jump of 28 feet over a 2,500-foot deep gorge -- a jump his father wanted to attempt and had planned, but for which was never able to gain permission. Earlier this year, Robbie successfully jumped over 24 Coca-Cola truck cabs at Kings Island in Cincinnati, cleared 21 Hummers at the Texas Motor Speedway in June, and earlier this month cleared 25 Dodge vehicles at the Six Flags amusement park in St. Louis.

At his newly located workshop and headquarters in Western Pennsylvania, the 46-year-old motorcycle daredevil, known as “Kaptain” is laying out various super-scenarios for the hoped for jump. I’m told he still has two more jumps planned before thinking of retirement, to recognize his father’s daredevil skills. He still wants to jump the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho, where his father failed in 1974 on a rocket-cycle. My neighbor here, Bob Arum, who heads Top Rank Productions, was a partner in that event. Knievel also wants to beat the record his dad almost achieved in London’s Wembley Stadium on May 26,1975, by jumping over 13 London red buses before crashing! Both final challenges he’ll face during 2009. Meantime he’ll open a sports bar and museum in Daytona Beach, Fla., this fall and if successful there he’ll consider a Vegas opportunity for it too.

Luxe Life will keep you posted as the plans progress for the amazing New Year’s Eve televised center Strip spectacular

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