{"id":13528,"date":"2016-02-02T00:53:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T08:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/?p=13528"},"modified":"2020-11-26T02:49:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T10:49:59","slug":"downtown-grands-ceo-jim-simms-is-shown-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/downtown-grands-ceo-jim-simms-is-shown-the-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Grand’s CEO Jim Simms Is Shown the Door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Word is the CEO of the struggling Downtown Grand, Jim Simms, has been given his walking
\npapers.<\/p>\n

Simms’ abrupt, apparently involuntary, departure is the latest twist in the Downtown Grand
\nsaga.<\/p>\n

Downtown Grand was formerly the Lady Luck and is owned by the CIM Group. Lady Luck was
\npurchased in 2007 for $100 million, and the company invested another $100 million in a
\nmajor renovation. Downtown Grand opened in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Downtown
Lady Luck originally opened in 1964, the same year Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa. No connection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Simms replaced the resort’s previous CEO, Seth Schorr, who is currently the chairman of
\nFifth Street Gaming. Fifth Street Gaming operates Downtown Grand and other gambling
\nestablishments in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Downtown Grand had high hopes for Jim Simms, but he encountered many of the same
\nchallenges his predecessor faced, including not being able to capitalize on the foot
\ntraffic on Fremont Street Experience (where this blog is employed, by the way).<\/p>\n

Downtown Grand’s recent efforts to draw gamblers have been baffling, to say the least. The
\ncasino, for example, removed its table games from the main casino floor, relocating them
\ninto a former high limit room. The tables returned to the main floor a couple of weeks
\nafter the move, but feel incidental to the casino rather than an integral part of it.<\/p>\n

\"Downtown
We kid because we love.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Downtown Grand made a token effort to draw Canadian travelers<\/a> late last year, presumably
\nbecause Jim Simms is a native Canadian. It appears that initiative wasn’t as successful as
\nhoped.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Downtown Grand’s most baffling marketing effort to-date has been an attempt to
\nappeal to video gamers. The hotel has played host to an eSports team<\/a>, and has expressed
\nthat it wants “to be known as a company that embraces the eSports community.”<\/p>\n

Despite the shuffling of its executives and curious marketing strategies, Downtown Grand
\nremains an appealing resort, especially if you include the fact two strong neighboring
\nrestaurants are in the Fifth Street Gaming family, Pizza Rock and Triple George Grill.<\/p>\n

\"Pizza
Free casino consultation: Find out what people love about Pizza Rock’s meatballs and make your casino that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We suspect Downtown Grand will put a nice face on the departure of Jim Simms, but Las
\nVegas casino CEOs rarely get traded when they’re knocking it out of the park. Yes, we used
\na sports metaphor. After 1,000 blog posts, there are very few unused metaphors left.<\/p>\n

Update (2\/3\/16): As promised, Downtown Grand says Simms is leaving because “he completed his one-year plan ahead of schedule.” Which may just be the best line in the history of ever. Read more, including this gem: Downtown Grand is prepared for another strong year of “elevating the casual sophisticated resort experience in downtown Las Vegas.”<\/p>\n

The vast majority of casino fans, including this Las Vegas blog, continue to root for the
\nsuccess of Downtown Grand and hold out hope bold, wiser choices can turn the resort
\naround. Downtown Grand’s ownership is no doubt running out of patience. Again.<\/p>\n

We predicted<\/a> Downtown Grand will be sold in 2016, even though the asking price is a tad (translation: wildly) on the optimistic side at the moment.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas is full of surprises, however, and Downtown Grand may still have a card or two up its sleeve. Yeah, we’re much more comfortable with gambling metaphors.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word is the CEO of the struggling Downtown Grand, Jim Simms, has been given his walking papers. Simms’ abrupt, apparently involuntary, departure is the latest twist in the Downtown Grand saga. Downtown Grand was formerly the Lady Luck and is owned by the CIM Group. Lady Luck was purchased in 2007 for $100 million, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,23,24,2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-downtownlasvegas","category-gambling","category-vegas","category-las-vegas-casinos","category-lasvegashotels","category-lasvegasrestaurants"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDowntown Grand's CEO Jim Simms Is Shown the Door | Vital Vegas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Word is the CEO of the struggling Downtown Grand, Jim Simms, has been given his walking\u00a0papers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Downtown Grand's CEO 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