Creating a team is easy. It’s building the right one – and keeping it together – that
presents challenges.
Having the right team in business, and indeed in sport, theater or any other walk
of life, can be the difference between tremendous success and abject failure. It can
create solutions, rather than solve problems. It can even be the difference between
loving or hating what you do for a living.
Of course, this inevitably leads to the concept of trial and error. Almost like hitting the
jackpot on a Buffalo slot machine or drawing four of a kind in Texas hold’em, the odds are
against one achieving instant, fortuitous success.
So sometimes executives have to persevere, as unsuccessful teams come and go.
Sometimes entrepreneurs have to persist, as unsuccessful businesses come and go. And
sometimes casinos have to be unrelenting, as financial and regulatory hurdles get thrown
their way on an equally unrelenting basis.
While these are all general ideas, applicable industry wide, there is one particular
property that knows these life lessons better than most – the Fontainebleau Las Vegas,
which after years of delay (as well as executive turnover) finally celebrated its grand
opening in December 2023.
Gaming America was in attendance as Cher, Justin Timberlake and more presented a
luxurious new Las Vegas Strip property to the world. But when you consider the fact that
construction began in February 2007, with continual delays and an eventual cost of $3.7bn,
it becomes clear Fontainebleau’s journey was no straightforward one.
As such, the historic opening of the latest addition to the Las Vegas skyline gets
extensive coverage in this January/February edition of Gaming America magazine.
And, after such a long wait, we caught up with Mark Tricano and Colleen Birch
for exclusive, in-depth interviews conducted right at the
epicenter of the Fontainebleau offices.
Relief and excitement are palpable in equal
measure for the duo, with the new Vegas big
hitter finally opening its doors. It aims to appeal
to luxury travellers and VIPs – it certainly did
during its opening party – and all eyes will be
on how, after all this time, the Fontainebleau
is able to fit into the Las Vegas jigsaw.
Happy New Year to all our readers; we at
Gaming America are watching keenly to see
how Fontainebleau’s journey unfolds.
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