Program:  Cavuto Coast to Coast
Date:  6/23/2021
Station:  Fox Business News
Time:  12:00PM

NEIL CAVUTO: Making sure you have air conditioning is a big issue in Vegas right now, where temperatures later this week are going to be hovering around one hundred and ten degrees. But it’s a dry heat, I’m told. But that has not stopped at four point three billion dollar mega casino from opening up on the strip. The first new opening we’ve seen on the strip in the better part of a decade. Scott Martin here comment on that. Connell McShane as well. You know, if that isn’t proof of the demand and the comeback going on in Vegas, where I’m told in this particular place, rooms have been pre-booked. That says a lot, Scott. What do you think?

SCOTT MARTIN: It does, and if that’s any indication that the three of us are going to get our annual Vegas trip back on the schedule, hey, I’m all for it. Here’s the other thing. And maybe that was somebody else maybe got you guys confused with somebody else. But the point is, Neil, look at some of the sporting events going on….

CAVUTO: Varney, I think it was Varney

MARTIN: That’s right. It was Varney. That’s right. It’s easy to confuse it, especially late at night. But look at how the venues are filled. Look at how the just excitement is surrounding the NBA, the NHL, MLB and, of course, the NFL season that’s going to have full stadiums out in the fall. Vegas is coming back in a big way. Sin is back in. And the fact that we have all these sports now getting really exciting and some of the games and especially like last night with the Phoenix L.A. game, those are reasons that Vegas is back with a vengeance and probably going to be even back bigger than it was before the pandemic.

CAVUTO: All right, so apparently these are all sports references you were making, Connell, what do you make of what’s happening there? Again, I always say you’ve been going around the country more than any other anchor business reporter, and you’ve seen it for yourself. But in Vegas, they were stumped. They were no business conferences, crowds. I mean, they certainly need this, don’t they?

CONNELL MCSHANE: Yeah, they’re almost back, I mean, the last numbers that we had were from April, so a few months ago, and they were at seventy three percent of their pre pandemic levels with over two and a half million people going to Vegas. So they’re almost back by now, you would think. And certainly as we move into the fall, they’ll be back to kind of where we were. So, yeah, I mean, on a domestic level, I think Vegas is where it needs to be or even above that. There’s probably two challenges that remain. One of the business conferences they’ve started to return. But that’s going to be slower, right? For a couple of reasons. One, I guess, is the pandemic, but the other is that a lot of especially big businesses realize that they don’t need to spend the money on those types of conferences anymore. You might not see the attendance you saw in the past. And the other thing is the international visitors for now. And despite what you hear about Scott’s propensity for for gambling when he hits Vegas, some of those international visitors, those are the real high rollers. So they need to get them back as well. But on the domestic side, you need to get more of those guys.

CAVUTO: They need to get more of them real quickly.