- What's new in Las Vegas for 2021. One of the best things
about visiting Las Vegas is there's always new
attractions opening, new casinos, new hotels, new restaurants
to eat at, new shows to see and so in this video,
I'm gonna tell you about all those new things
that have opened in 2020 and all the new things that
are planned to open in 2021. Now this is the year of the pandemic and so something a little
different I'm gonna do this year, is I'm also gonna share with you some of these significant
things that have closed, because lots of things have
closed this year in Las Vegas. It might be one of your favorite
attractions or restaurants that's no longer there anymore. By the way, I'm Chris,
this is Yellow Productions. I do travel guides that are fun, informative and entertaining. This video, it's part of
my series on Las Vegas. So if you wanna see
more videos on Las Vegas like the best luxury hotels to
stay at, or the cheapest eats on the Las Vegas Strip, well
you'll find links to those in the description or at
the end of this video. So without further ado,
let's get right into it. And we're gonna start
with the major things that have opened in 2020. The first and the biggest
is the Allegiant Stadium, this is home to the
Raiders and was completed at a cost of $2 billion. It'll seat 65,000 fans. It's an indoor stadium,
but one of the things that's really neat about this stadium is it's real grass inside. How do they grow the real grass? Well, they've actually
got this conveyor belt that essentially moves the
grass outside so it can get sun and then when it's game time
they move the grass back into the stadium. Now, unfortunately, during pandemic time there have been no in-person
games or in-person events. The first in-person event
that's scheduled there is a Garth Brooks Concert that's scheduled for February of 2021. I'm not sure I would keep
your hopes up about that one but the Allegiant Stadium
website does say that they plan to host tours of the stadium soon. The second biggest thing to open in 2020 is the Circa Resort & Casino. This casino and hotel opened
in Downtown Las Vegas. It has a lucky number, 777 hotel rooms and it is the first new
hotel to open since 1980 in Downtown Las Vegas. It's also the tallest tower
North of the Las Vegas Strip. Circa has a lot of neat
things about the hotel but I think one of the
coolest is their stadium swim. It's their rooftop swimming
pool that also has big screens so you can watch sports games. I also think if you're staying
in the hotel one neat thing is their basic rooms
come with refrigerators in the rooms, pretty nice. Now, speaking of Downtown, the Downtown Gateway Arch is now complete. This is located right
next to the Stratosphere, I'm sorry, the Strat and it's this arch that lights up at night, it was completed at a
cost of $6.5 million. It's trying to be the new selfie spot. You know, the other side of
the Strip has the welcome to Las Vegas sign that
everybody takes a picture of, well, Downtown Las Vegas is
trying to get you to come and take a picture of this. I think this sign almost gives
people a reason to come down to this part of the
Strip where the Strat is. The next new thing in 2020 is
at the Circus Circus Hotel, no it wasn't torn down,
they've added a new ride in the Adventuredome, it's called NebulaZ. It's a thrill ride. It has eight gondolas
that hold four riders each and rotate guests 14 times a minute from 32 feet up in the air. This video, not from the Adventuredome but from the company that makes the ride at their original Coney Island location. Heading more towards
the center of the Strip we have a new opening of a Target store. The Target store has opened
in the Showcase Mall, it replaces the former Smith and Wollensky steakhouse building. This is one of Target's
smaller format stores, it's about 20,000 square feet, but it's a great place to
stuck up on snacks and drinks and you'll find it right
next to the giant Coke bottle and the M&M store. Caesars Entertainment has
opened a new convention facility called the Caesars Forum. It's located behind the LINQ Hotel, behind the big Ferris wheel. This venue can hold up to
10,000 attendees for events and its claim to fame as part
of the Forum is the ballrooms, there's two of them. They are 110,000 square
feet each making them the world's largest pillar-less
ballrooms in the world. Now you might be thinking, isn't it kind of weird to
open a conference facility during the pandemic,
Caesars has been building and planning this thing for a long time and so they'll be
well-poised when conventions and events do return to Las Vegas. And the final new thing in
2020 that I wanna mention is the El Cortez Hotel in downtown has finally replaced their carpet, after how long, after 13 years. People will always wonder, how often do these casinos
replace their carpet, well now you know, at the El
Cortez it's every 13 years. And if you are one of the lucky ones in the hotels gift shop
starting January 1st this year, they were actually selling
pieces of that carpet $19 each, no, not the one that was on the floor, some old stock that
they had, so it was new. So now before we get to
what's coming in 2021 I wanna talk about what's
closed this year in 2020 due to the pandemic. The first significant closure
to talk about, buffets. Lots of buffets are currently
closed, but I wanna share with you the ones that
have permanently closed. Circus Circus has permanently
closed at least a portion of their buffet. At the Circus Circus Hotel
they are reallocating a portion of the buffet
space to a food court. The food court is being built
out at the Circus Circus by the same company that
operates the one at Excalibur. And Circus Circus says
they do plan to open some of the buffet again
assuming that they can and demand warrants. Now, the other buffet that
has closed permanently, at the Treasure Island, the
Treasure Island has closed it's buffet permanently,
they've replaced that space with a sports book instead of a buffet. The plagued project known as The Drew has been suspended indefinitely. This hotel is located right
about across the street from the Circus Circus. It was supposed to house the
Strip's first JW Marriott. This thing has been
plagued from the beginning, delays and bankruptcies, all
construction is currently at a dead stop on The Drew. 2020 has seen a significant
amount of restaurant closures across Las Vegas and I'm gonna highlight just a few of the significant
ones that have closed on the Las Vegas Strip. First up Pok Pok Wing. This was at the cosmopolitan
in the block 16 food court. They closed this year. Pok Pok Wing will be replaced
by David Chang's Bāng Bar. David Chang of Momofuku fame, specializing in rotisserie meats wrapped
in Korean bang bread. A restaurant that I really enjoyed for their Singaporean style
chicken rice, Flock and Fowl in Downtown Las Vegas also has closed. Heading over to the Palazzo Hotel there's a couple significant
closures here to mention. The first one is Emeril
Lagasse's, Lagasse's Stadium. This was Emeril sports
bar, that one no more. The second one at the Palazzo to close was Morels Steakhouse. This one had a Strip view
morels, also no more. Over at Caesar's Palace, Bobby Flay's celebrity chef
restaurant Mesa Grill has closed after 15 years. Now, if you still like
Bobby Flay food, good news, it's being replaced by
another Bobby Flay restaurant called Amalfi specializing
in Italian seafood. Bobby Flay's other seafood
restaurant at the Palms Hotel is currently closed indefinitely because the Palms Hotel
has still not reopened. A couple of closers to
mention at the Mirage. First, the Mirage has lost
its nightclub called 1OAK. 1OAK has shut its doors permanently. And second at the Mirage
it's lost Carnegie Deli, famous for its mile
high pastrami sandwiches and matzo ball soup, you'll
have to look other places. If you are looking for really
good pastrami sandwiches, head over to the New York in New York and get the pastrami sandwiches and matzo ball soup over there. And finally the hotel with
the most restaurant closures on the Strip, the Aria, they've
closed the Aria Cafe, Sage, the seafood restaurant
Herringbone and a pizza restaurant that I really enjoyed called Five50, all four of those no more. The one exciting thing that
did open an Aria in 2020 that replaced one of
those is Din Tai Fung, specializing in their soup dumpling. So if you like Taiwanese soup dumplings, checkout Din Tai Fung, my favorite Chinese restaurant anywhere. Okay, now that we've got
the depressing closures out of the way, let's talk
about what's coming in 2021. The thing that I'm most
excited for opening this year in 2021 is Resorts World. Resorts World has been in
development for a long time. It's a $4.3 billion resort that has an opening date of Summer 2021, coming with 3,500 hotel rooms. Particularly exciting
because these hotel rooms are gonna be affiliated to the Hilton Honors Rewards Program. It's gonna be three
Hilton affiliated hotels, a Hilton hotel, and LXR
hotel and a Conrad hotel. There's gonna be tons of stuff
in this integrated resort, nightclubs, swimming pools,
restaurants, check it out in the Summer. The next hotel that I'm
really excited about opening in Las Vegas is the Virgin Hotel. This replaces the former Hard Rock Hotel, which I guess I could have
mentioned it closed last year to make way for the Virgin Hotel, but we're talking about new hotels now. What's really interesting
about the Virgin Hotel is it will be the first
tribally operated casino, operated by the Mohican
native American group. The Virgin Hotel will have
about 1500 hotel rooms. There's no official opening date yet, but if you go to their website, rooms are bookable starting April 7th. Now speaking of conventions,
the Las Vegas Convention Center is wrapping up its expansion this year, they're adding a new West Hall that will add 1.4 million square feet to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Where did they find all this
room to build this new hall, well, it's the land that
was formerly occupied by the Riviera Hotel. When it's all said and done
the Las Vegas Convention Center will now be the largest convention
center in North America. Another new thing at the convention center the boring company, Elon
Musk's tunnel digging company, is building a new transportation system underneath the convention center. It's essentially an
underground version of Uber, operated by Teslas. That's supposed to open this year in 2021 assuming they actually have a convention at the convention center. Something that may begin
construction this year is the Las Vegas Loop. The boring company is proposing
building this tunnel system throughout Las Vegas, 15 miles of tunnels with these underground automated Teslas, should be pretty interesting
if it comes to fruition. One of my favorite
attractions at the Las Vegas is getting a new location,
the Pinball Hall of Fame, which is currently on Tropicana, is building out a new location
on the Las Vegas Strip across from the Mandalay Bay. This new location will
be 28,000 square feet, three times bigger than
the current location. Currently they have about
250 pinball machines but they're expecting to have 700. The new location, just like the old one, will have no admission fees and all of the games operate on quarters. Whenever live shows return, the Magic Mike Show has a new home, its new home will be at the Sahara Hotel. So for all of you ladies
that are heading to Vegas for a bachelorette party,
well you can get your party on over at Magic Mike at the Sahara. Speaking of the Sahara,
they're building out a new restaurant row featuring some new Strip front eateries. One of the notable ones will be Chickie's and Pete's
sports bar and crabhouse. They're also opening
their own Chinese concept called Noodle Den. Another new restaurant
coming to the Las Vegas Strip is Olive Garden. Olive Garden is planning
to open a flagship location above that new Target
in the Showcase Mall. This Olive Garden is gonna
be about 12,000 square feet with a maximum occupancy
of about 400 people inside. It should be pretty nice Olive Garden because they're spending about
$4 million on the renovation. One of the most unusual but
maybe most interesting things to open in 2021 will be AREA15. This is an art entertainment district that's located across the Interstate 15 from about where the Trump Tower is. AREA15's website calls it a
mashup of a funky bizarre, artismal food hall, music
venue, sculpture garden and immersive experience. They say it's the evolution of the mall for the 21st century. It is sure to be interesting
because the director of art content for AREA15
is one of the founders of the Blue Man Group. Now, if you're really itching
to experience the Raiders, when you can't do it at
Allegiant Stadium right now, well the Raiders are planning
to open a restaurant, the Raiders Restaurant, over
at the M Hotel in Henderson. That's all kind of the Las
Vegas metropolitan area but this hotel is located
on the Interstate 15. If you're driving in from California it's the first big hotel you
see on the right hand side. The Raiders Bar & Grill will
have over 30 televisions, the Raiders memorabilia,
bars, outdoor dining it's sure to be a great place
to watch the game on game day. Now there's a couple more
interesting things brewing in 2021, but I'm gonna call
this the future category of things that are being
worked on this year but will likely come to
fruition in later years. The first one is the Rio Hotel. New owners have purchased the
Rio Hotel and so it's expected that they're gonna do a
whole rehab of the Rio Hotel that might start this year,
it might start next year, but that's the current rumor is to expect a full
rehabilitation of the Rio Hotel. Currently under construction
and slated to open in 2023 is the MSG Sphere. This is a new concert venue run by the Madison Square Garden
group is gonna be a big sphere. And instead of having
speakers to beam audio to you they're gonna use things
to beam audio directly to your seat. How's this all going to
work, it's hard to say, but if this actually does open
it sure to be pretty cool. If you're coming to Vegas in 2021 you might see the structure
of the MSG Sphere starting to materialize right
behind the Venetian Hotel. And speaking of the Venetian
Hotel, rumor is it's for sale, asking price $6 billion. Why would the owner
wanna sell the Venetian, well, because the Las Vegas
Sands Corporation believes that there're gonna be
more money made in Macau and in Singapore than in Las Vegas. So if you've got an extra
$6 billion hanging around in your wallet, you could be the new owner of the Venetian and the Palazzo. Well, if you enjoyed this video and you're planning a trip to Las Vegas you might enjoy checking
out some of my other videos, like my video about the cheapest
eats on the Las Vegas Strip or perhaps the best luxury hotels. As usual, I won't say goodbye, because I'll see you
in one of these videos.
