Las Vegas Weekly

November 25, 2009 · 12:28 PM

The Mirage celebrates 20 years of excitement and fun

By Robin Leach

The Mirage's 20th anniversary cake.

Photo: Glenn Pinkerton/Las Vegas News Bureau

The 20th anniversary cake the chefs cooked up at The Mirage was as spectacular as the resort’s two-decade history! It was a replica of the resort property itself and stood 3 feet tall with three distinct sides paying tribute to original entertainers Siegfried & Roy and current headliners Terry Fator and the Cirque du Soleil Beatles musical Love.

Dozens of the employees who’d started with The Mirage on Day One 20 years ago joined with President Scott Sibella to celebrate the nonstop fun and excitement since 1989 when the resort forever changed the face and skyline of the Strip. Nearly 600 employees have been with the property since opening day, including current Vice President Franz Kallao, who started his career checking in guests back then.

Fun fact: Siegfried & Roy’s white tiger cubs were the first arrivals to check in at The Mirage. The AAA Four Diamond resort casino is marking its 20th anniversary with a special rates package of $86 per night, with a $50 credit for use in the Cravings buffet. Additionally, guests receive classic merchandise, vintage restaurant menus and specialty drinks with prices rolled back to 1989.

The Mirage is celebrating 20 years as its parent MGM Mirage plans to open the new CityCenter next week. Steve Wynn built The Mirage for $620 million in junk bond debt as the first new hotel in 15 years. Experts criticized the casino, saying there was no way it would bring in the needed $1 million a day to pay the debt. Now how eerily similar is that to the scenario with next week’s openings at CityCenter?

The Mirage started a 20-year building boom on the Strip and catapulted Las Vegas into a world destination as the entertainment, fine dining and shopping capital of the world. Could that also be the case again with City Center?

Scott has been president of The Mirage for the past four years, although he helped open the property on loan from the Golden Nugget downtown as a front office manager. He told me: “It was well planned and well built at the time and completely reinvented Vegas. We never had to plan on it being imploded, which would be the case with other properties. We were just able to keep on improving it in recent years.”

Scott spent more than $100 million of MGM’s investment money to redecorate 2,700 of its 3,000 rooms, reel in brand new restaurants and lounges and, most important of all, spend $25 million on the 54-foot-tall trademark volcano to rebuild it and make it even more spectacular.

Said Scott: “Only this month, we opened the new B.B. King New Orleans-themed jazz restaurant right on the Strip. So we keep on updating. We are still cutting edge. We were the first hotel to open an adults-only pool, Bare, so we’re still innovating and implementing ideas before others beat us to it. We are proactive still and not reactive.

“We opened with Siegfried & Roy, and they put us on the map. Now Love and Terry Fator are doing that, too. The Love contract was for 10 years in 2004, and we have a 10-year renewal deal in place. And Terry is only the first year into his 10-year deal and doing fantastic. We’ll still be here in another 20 years, and we will always continue to keep doing better.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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