It's Official - Vegas Is Back

The scene at the Circa Las Vegas pool on Friday tells us all we need to know about the COVID recovery and where it stands in Sin City. If dudes on top of dudes in a pool is any indication Vegas being back, then it's safe to say the city IS BACK and open for business. The Circa pool, built to accommodate 4,000 guests per day, was absolutely loaded Friday as dudes watched the massive TV screens that sit on the roof of the downtown Las Vegas casino/hotel.

Circa, which opened in late October during a pandemic, is experiencing its first full weekend as a destination resort and the early indications from March Madness weekend is that this place is going to live up what Circa owner Derek Stevens and his investors had in mind when they put up the money to build a mecca for sports betting, wading around in a pool with a bunch of dudes and crushing seltzers.

While Nevada governor Steve Sisolak announced at the beginning of the week that he would allow businesses to operate at 50% capacity, Scott Roeben, the brains behind the influential @VitalVegas account, reports that May 1 is being targeted for the 100% reopening of Las Vegas.

Roeben also believes casinos will remove the Plexiglass dividers at craps and poker room tables.

This is what 50% capacity looks like at Circa: 

So now what for politicians like Sisolak, who instituted COVID rules that absolutely crippled Las Vegas businesses as Strip violence took off with a vengeance in 2020? People are flowing back into cities and businesses are desperate to cash in. If the past two weeks are any indication of how 2021 will go, there's no going back for a politician like Sisolak. This week's announcement on allowing 50% capacity also means that conventions can now allow up to 50% capacity. According to the Review-Journal, Las Vegas visitation numbers were down 63% to levels that haven't been seen since 1993. Hotels were down 57%.

Nevada's 14-day average for new COVID cases sits at 231 and the positivity rate is at 5.1%. The World Health Organization says a 5% positivity rate should be the goal of governments. The state reports 33 patients are on ventilators for COVID.

Vegas is looking at a perfect storm for incredible crowds over the next several weeks. Pent-up demand is meeting up with Americans sitting on stimulus checks to spend and a basketball tournament to gamble on. Throw in Spring Break, cheap flights, deals to get people to return and you have an incredible cocktail for Sin City.

Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom (D) bragged to Las Vegas media outlets that the city is "ready to explode," but made sure to add that "there's no place that's following the restrictions more than we are."

Spoken as only a politician can. Tick clearly knows that time is running out on the COVID game and he better pivot fast to economic recovery. Vegas is back and the political leaders are about to jump into that Circa pool to suck down some seltzers. Just watch.