OT: Harrahs Tunica closing June 1st.

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Anyone heard if they are shutting the golf course down? I've heard casino and hotels but nothing about Cottonwoods.


ETA. Yes they are closing everything including the golf course.

 

[57stratdawg]

Can't good be a good sign for the county or state economy.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

County was already in bad shape. They've squandered all their money. It got so bad back in the winter they had to borrow money several times to make payroll. Leadership in tunica county is corrupted and pathetic and they have no one to blame but themselves.

 

[esplanade91]

Good for my hometown on the coast, I guess. Seems kind if bizarre.

 

[WrapItDog]

Caesars owns Harrahs and both the Horseshoe and Tunica Roadhouse. Owning 3 casinos next door to each other doesn't make much sense in a declining market. Caesars has sold casinos in Vegas and the Harrahs in New Orleans due to huge debt and losses in the billions. I'm guessing Harrahs in Tunica will end up being bought by some other gambling corp and eventually reopen. The fate of the golf course who knows. The greens would make 18 nice food plots.

 

[Palos verdes]

Those casinos have been up there for a long time, but I always wondered why they built so many to begin with. I haven't been there in over 10 years, but I don't think the area ever developed like they thought it would. Casino gambling is not as popular as it used to be for many reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if another casino closed up there.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The property is 2300 acres total. You've got the casino, hotels and convention center, golf course, rv park, and the willows clay shooting course. I'm thinking different interests may buy portions of it, like the golf course.

 

[mstateglfr]

Is the golf course you are referring to that links style course- Tunica National?

7 college buddies hit up the casino and that course a handful of years ago as part of a reunion weekend on the Arkansas football weekend.
We played that course in mid-November. It was the dumbest golfing experience I have had. Ever.
40mph winds were constant and we were the only 6 people in the middle of a few hundred acres in the middle of nowhere.

They have an indoor tennis facility and people were practicing. That was surprising as the area doesnt exactly seem like the epicenter of high quality tennis.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Welcome to the Delta, the wind blows like that many days out of the year especially in the spring and fall.

The one Harrahs owns is the Links at Cottonwood. Its about a mile north of there. Tunica National is owned and built by the county. Its a horribly designed golf course and I hate it. I think Cottonwoods and Riverbend are better layouts. They spared no expense in that place.

Tennis is huge in Desoto County and that's where most of their business comes from.

 

[Statedog101]

The casino industry in Mississippi is in big time trouble. I worked for a river casino years ago, but don't do much gambling. It's not just tunica, it's the whole state. The proliferation of casinos all over the country, both state run and Indian casinos are devastating the Mississippi market. Those people from the Midwest who use to come to tunica are now staying home.

Saw a story today that the "foot traffic" or visitor count in tunica the last few years has dropped from 16 million to 6 million people. That's a disaster. Expect more casinos in the future to shut down. I think Mississippi will become a regional or local player in the industry.

If online gambling ever becomes legal across the country, I think you'll see a lot of gaming places in trouble, including Vegas.

 

[mstateglfr]

Interesting- I remember thinking both during the round and after how unimpressed I was with the golf course. It was just tough to decide what % of my dislike stemmed from 40degree weather and 40mph winds, and what % stemmed from just not liking the layout.

Looks like we chose the wrong 1 of 3 to play. Luckily the next day we were treated to the incredible layout and conditions of Dogwood shortly before it closed for the 2nd or 3rd time.
Compared to Dogwood, Tunica National was The Old Course!

 

[Thirty-Two Dive]

Harrah's has closed more casinos in Mississippi than they have opened.

But the proliferation of Casino Gaming in other states, more so than the economy, is the direct cause of this, not Harrah's egregious mismanagement. Tunica is just going to downsize. It is not going away.

The Coast gaming market has a little more resiliency, due to being more of a destination. Capital investment on peripheral amenities are actually on the increase. Although, if Florida ever opens up casino gaming (outside of its lucrative compact with the Seminole), then the Coast could suffer a similar fate (Downsizing/consolidation).

 

[johnson86-1]

The Coast gaming market has a little more resiliency, due to being more of a destination. Capital investment on peripheral amenities are actually on the increase. Although, if Florida ever opens up casino gaming (outside of its lucrative compact with the Seminole), then the Coast could suffer a similar fate (Downsizing/consolidation).

The only thing the Coast has going for it is that it is one of the few places with legal gambling that is large enough for a convention scene. It obviously won't compete with Las Vegas, but it's competitive with Atlantic City. It's a shame the coliseum is not right across from the Beau and Hard Rock. That would really change the Coast as a market. Ideally you'd have your largest convention space within walking distance to enough hotels to fill it up. As it is, small conventions can stay at the Beau or IP, but for anything big enough to require the coliseum and attached convention center, you have to have everybody rent cars or you have to have shuttles going back and forth. Just not ideal.

But yes, if Florida opens up gambling, it will hurt a ton, especially if they do so anywhere from the panhandle to Tampa.

 

[Crayon_Eater]

I dont have extensive knowledge of Tunica National or golf course design, so what makes it a 'horribly designed' course? It seemed more than fair to me. Tough, but fair.

 

[dawgdoug1962]

County was already in bad shape. They've squandered all their money. It got so bad back in the winter they had to borrow money several times to make payroll. Leadership in tunica county is corrupted and pathetic and they have no one to blame but themselves.

DesotoCounty, I was there from 1994 to June 2005 and during those years the county had excellent leadership with this one possible exception....they probably overbuilt when it came to amenities not thinking ahead to a lower tax base 20 years down the road. There is one county supervisor from the northern part of the county who seemed to hold a major grudge against the leadership that I mentioned, and he has been determined to become 'the man' so to speak....looks like he has just about succeeded in that, plus taking the county down to its present state. Sad now to see so much incompetent leadership in control of most all positions of government.....the board recently pushed out the two persons most responsible for holding the board accountable...

 

[Franklin&Bash-dawg]

Tennis is huge in Desoto County and that's where most of their business comes from.

This would be correct, tennis is huge. The irony of Desoto County tennis is that Hernando/Southaven have very limited court supply. In fact, Hernando Middle School courts started charging $$ this year for use. The USTA teams in the area are traveling to Senatobia or Tunica to host. Tunica National tennis also hosts multiple weekend tournaments. Before the recession hit there were plans to build at least four more indoor courts, which would be nice. Right now the only pro-tennis growth is Oxford, which is north Mississippi's best chance in the future to host state tournaments.

Alot of bad information in this thread about how every casino is way down. I know the actual numbers of Gold Strike's visitor counts, and they are actually up each of the past couple years. Heard Harrahs went from over three million to about 1.5 million. Not sure of the time span.

 

[lowbird]

I love cheap golf and Cottonwoods had the best deal goin. 12 rounds for $300 comes to $26/round on a $65 golf course.

I'm playin there Saturday so I hope to get some more scoop on the situation.

As far as public golf goes along the statelines Cottonwoods, Tunica Ntl, and Kirkwood(Holly Springs) are as good as it gets. I'd group wedgewood north creek and Cherokee together on a tier down from the first 3. After that its ******.

 

[Palos verdes]

I'm not against building casinos if in the right areas, but if they built them along the Florida Gulf Coast, it will ruin the atmosphere, and the natural aesthetics, imo. I don't think Floridians would want this.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

You must be referring to James Dunn. Yes he is as crooked as they come and now he's president of the board of supervisors.

 

[dawgdoug1962]

You must be referring to James Dunn. Yes he is as crooked as they come and now he's president of the board of supervisors.

Yep!