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The MGM Grand Las Vegas opened in 1993 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, as a Hollywood themed resort. It is the world's largest hotel, with 5044 guest rooms, suites, villas and Skylofts (including 3,153 no smoking rooms).
Owned and operated by the MGM Mirage company, the 30-floor building is 293 feet (89 m) high and features five outdoor pools, a 380,000 square foot (35,000 m²) convention center, the MGM Grand Arena, CBS Television City, and the Grand Spa. It also houses numerous shops and night clubs, nine restaurants, two food courts, and the largest casino in Las Vegas, which occupies 171,500 square feet (16,000 m²).
The Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard intersection, where the MGM Grand is located, is extremely busy. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross at street level. Instead, the MGM Grand is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to its neighboring casinos: to the south across Tropicana Avenue, the Tropicana, and to the west across the Strip, the New York-New York.
History
Before the current MGM Grand was built, another hotel known as the MGM Grand was located about a mile (1.5 km) north on the Las Vegas Strip. That site is now occupied by Bally's Hotel & Casino.
In 1990 Kirk Kerkorian bought the Marina Hotel to obtain the site that would become the home of the MGM Grand. During that time, the Marina was known as the MGM-Marina Hotel.
When the latest MGM Grand opened on December 18, 1993, it was owned by MGM Grand Inc. At that time it had an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" color of the building and the decorative use of Wizard of Oz memorabilia.
Originally, the main entrance on the Strip was inside the mouth of a giant cartoonish lion, but this entrance feature was changed to a more traditional entrance; some Asian gamblers avoided the casino, due to the cultural view that entering the mouth of the lion was "bad luck." This superstition stems from the phrase "sending a sheep into a lion's tiger's mouth", which implies that a person can be shaken down and there is nothing anyone can do about it.. A large golden lion statue was added above the entrance to keep with the MGM Lion theme, while not offending their more superstitious guests. When the MGM Grand opened, it included the Grand Adventures theme park behind the casino. The plan was to make Las Vegas more "family friendly" by providing activities for children who were too young to gamble. The theme park performed poorly, and did not reopen for the 2001 season. On December 5, 2002, MGM Mirage announced that the former theme park would be developed as a luxury condominium and hotel complex called The Signature.
In 2000, in an attempt to appeal to a more mature clientele, the hotel underwent a major renovation and almost all traces of the "Oz" theme were removed. The theme is now more of the Art Deco era of classic Hollywood and the hotel started billing itself as The City of Entertainment, a similar title given to Los Angeles.
A monorail was built using old trains from the Walt Disney World Resort to connect the MGM Grand to Bally's. The track was extended and became the Las Vegas Monorail. The station was refurbished and the trains were replaced with Bombardier M-VI's. 2005 MGM opened the West Wing adding modern amenities such as flat screens, DVD players, and bathroom TV's.
Footnotes
References
External links
- MGM Grand Official site and source for some information used
- Las Vegas Travelog - includes about 15 photos of MGM Grand
- MGM Grand Hotel Reviews
- MGM Grand and West Wing Virtual Tour
- The Signature Condos at MGM Grand
Casinos in Las Vegas | Paradise, Nevada | Hotels of Las Vegas | Las Vegas Monorail stations | 1993 establishments
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"MGM Grand Las Vegas"