The MGM Springfield, located in the heart of the city’s South End, is continuing to tweak things in order to increase revenues, such as working to bring in a Wahlburgers restaurant across the street.
MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis told the Boston Globe “There are major tenants in different stages of development” to fill vacancies on Main Street. “Once you see some of that activity, I think it snowballs. We are very impatient about seeing ancillary development around the property, but it is underway.”
According to the city’s chief development officer, Kevin Kennedy, the pedestrian traffic in the downtown is transforming it in a good way, but that won’t happen overnight.
Gaming revenues at the MGM Springfield have no met original forecasts.
The first full month of operations the casino brought in $27 million. The next three months the profits were $22.2 million, $21.2 million, and $21.6 million. That would, in 12 months, produce about $260 million a year, way down from the original prediction by MGM of more than $400 million a year.
According to New England gaming industry expert Clyde Barrow of the University of Texas, that kind of return would justify the $950 million investment. He speculates that, when you include casinos in New York, that the region may be saturated. That would bode ill for the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor, which is scheduled for a June opening.
But Mathis argues that the Springfield is still tweaking its marketing campaign and learning about the locals.
He told the Globe, “Right now, we’re still in experimentation, trying to figure out what the customer wants.” He points out that in answer to patrons’ wishes they double the number of poker machines, added others to its high limit lounge and adjusted minimum bets.
“We saw tremendous business that justified some higher table minimums, but during the day there was enough softness that we saw we could lower it and talk to a different customer who was looking for a $10 game,” he said. “I think we’ll start to feel the benefits of that, of all our promotion, in the spring. That’s when we’ve got some of our bigger entertainment starting to roll out.”
