Wynn launches PR blitz to push proposed Wynn Foxborough casino resort




Casino mastermind Steve Wynn knows how to best sell a project. He’s launched a full-scale PR blitz about his new proposed Wynn Foxborough project, an “integrated destination resort” and casino he’s hoping to build across from the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium.

First proposed in late 2011, the resort, in talks to be built on land leased from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has generated significant controversy in the town of Foxborough, which is about 25 minutes south of Boston.

To combat this, Wynn decided the best way to rectify the situation was to take matters into his own hands (literally) with a video distributed on the Wynn Foxborough website and to thousands of homes in the Foxborough area, the Washington Post reported. According to the planned resort’s website, the resort will include a luxury hotel with “significant” convention space, more than 5,000 parking spaces, a skating rink, luxury shops, a spa, a pool, fine and casual dining and a theater, all of which will be “much smaller” than casino resort Foxwoods in nearby Connecticut
“We’re excited by the design and the unique opportunity the Wynn Resorts project presents for long-term economic growth in Foxborough,” Kraft Group spokesman Dan Krantz said.

“Since bringing forth the idea in December of last year, Wynn Resorts has followed through on a commitment to generate renderings and estimate the resort’s direct tax benefits. As we anticipated, the design and décor assimilates to its surroundings, and is likely in stark contrast to the Las Vegas-style high-rise that some may have envisioned,” he said.

Stephanie Crimmins, a spokeswoman for the group No Foxboro Casino, said casino opponents had anticipated that Wynn PR campaign. “These casino developers consistently over-promise and under-deliver,” she said. “That is something that has happened over and over again in every town and city in the country in which there has been a casino developed.”

Wynn’s video goes beyond statistics to hit at the “awe” factor of a large-scale luxury resort and features Wynn in a button down and blue sweater sitting on in what looks to be a hotel room near a golf course talking directly to “you, in your home.” Wynn reminds us of a kindly grandfather reassuring his children that he won’t, in fact, be spending their trust fund with his new “grand scheme,” as well as running through a list of reasons why his “destination resort that happens to have casino rooms in it” is, in fact, a really good idea.

Wynn appears to speak unscripted to the camera, pausing to highlight successful casino examples in other cities before taking viewers on a detailed tour through what the resort would offer, including a luxury spa, massive guestrooms, fine dining restaurant, and, oh yeah, ” the thing down at the other end of the building … with its other parking lot,” aka the casino.

We’ll be honest. It looks nice…really nice. And a whole lot like Wynn Las Vegas, but with a much more residential, lodge-like exterior. In the second half of the video, townspeople weigh in on the outcomes of the structure. “It’s inconceivable that these two very smart business people would … allow something to ruin the town,” one man said.

Wynn estimates that the resort will create more than 4,000 permanent jobs and 10,000 temporary construction positions. He also maintains it will generate between $10 and $15 million each year, which could be used to “lower property taxes or invest more in education. In addition to this direct revenue, an impact agreement with the town would cover the cost of any additional services, such as public safety, required as a result of our resort. Of course, a thorough traffic study will be completed and shared with the town officials.”

A state gambling law approved last year and signed by Gov. Deval Patric will not be approved until a majority of residents approve the proposal in a referendum.

According to the Associated Press, a Las Vegas-based Wynn subsidiary, Development Associates, LLC, spent more than $863,000 on lobbying in just the past three years to persuade state lawmakers to legalize casino gambling.

Wynn currently has resorts in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Macau.



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Wynn Las Vegas website looks like a 1990s CD-ROM

The Wynn Las Vegas is not an old hotel. It opened in 2005 and was last renovated in 2010. It’s an exquisite – and, more importantly for the sake of this post, modern – property. Why, then, is its website reminiscent of a CD-ROM menu from 1994? Everything from the frames to the bullet points to the seemingly generic layout built from a template make the site look like it was made on a shoestring budget by the designers of GeoCities. The single most marvelous aspect of the site, however, is the auto-play video that takes up more than half the screen and features 70-year-old Steve Wynn welcoming you to the website and marveling at the wonders of the internet.

Look, all hotel websites are horrible, and the more Flash they use and music they auto-play, the worse they are. But this? This isn’t even trying. This is either a joke, a tragic mistake or proof that Steve Wynn has spent too much time in the tanning booth.

What the hell is going on here, Wynn Las Vegas? Did you spend all of your money on the Lake of Dreams?

Garth Brooks begins five year run at Wynn Las Vegas

Hold on to your 10-gallon hats – there’s a new cowboy in town.

Country-crooner Garth Brooks started his five-year run at Wynn Las Vegas Encore Theatre on Friday and news from Sin City reports a whole new kind of sexy hitting the Strip. Stilettos and short dresses are being replaced by silver belt buckles as country fans flock to Las Vegas for a chance to see the Grammy-Emmy-Country-Music-Award winning Brooks come out of his 10 year retirement.

Ticket sales have soared since the Wynn announced Brooks would be headlining at the hotel for the next five years. The first 20 shows sold out in seconds and according to the Wynn website, shows are sold out for the immediate future. (Read: If you want Garth Brooks tickets you’ll have to buy from a secondary source.)

The concert is being billed as an ‘intimate evening’ with Brooks (apparently, there isn’t enough intimacy happening late-night in Las Vegas), complete with a question-and-answer session (which rarely happens pre-intimacy session in Las Vegas), but Brooks has only one request for this audience: No YouTube videos (no video cameras for this Sin City rendezvous).

Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images