Las
Vegas Set
To Mark Sept. 11
LAS VEGAS - /Las
Vegas Sun/ - Casinos along the Las Vegas Strip and numerous businesses
throughout Las Vegas plan to commemorate the first anniversary of
the Sept. 11 attacks with marquee messages, public service advertising
and other events to remember the thousands who died.
MGM MIRAGE employees
will receive a commemorative pin, while individual MGM MIRAGE casino
properties will feature stories in employee newsletters, displays
in employee areas and other remembrances.
Park Place Entertainment
Corp.'s Caesars
Palace and Flamingo
properties will be displaying large American flags, while the Las
Vegas Hilton will fly its flag at half mast. The Flamingo
will also hold a public remembrance ceremony on its outdoor lawn.
Martin-Harris
Construction, a general contracting firm based in Las Vegas, is ordering
500 T-shirts for its employees and field workers. The shirts will
feature an American flag and the words "In God We Trust."
Martin-Harris
will also likely hold a prayer meeting the morning of Sept. 11 to
pray for those whose lives were lost in the terrorism, said spokeswoman
Ellie Shattuck, and the company is arranging an alternate date to
celebrate the birthdays of employees who were born on Sept. 11.
"In the office,
we've had a lot of sharing," said Shattuck, who noted the company
started making plans for a Sept. 11 observance about a month ago.
"The fear and the sadness are just now coming to the surface.
For us, Sept. 11 is a day in tribute to carrying on our lives and
not allowing outside forces to alter our fortitude and our belief
in the American way of doing business."
The Howard Hughes
Corp., a developer in Las Vegas, has partnered with JMA Architecture
Studios to help finance a permanent memorial to Barbara Edwards, the
Palo Verde High School teacher who was aboard American Airlines Flight
77 when it hit the Pentagon.
The two companies
will unveil the memorial's design at the Summerlin high school at
9:30 a.m. on Sept. 10.
Angela Spall,
director of marketing for Lionel Sawyer and Collins in Las Vegas,
said the law firm hasn't planned to formally mark the anniversary
of the terrorist attacks but will allow its employees to remember
that day in their own way.
"We've just
gotten back from vacation and haven't discussed what we're planning
to do yet for 9-11's anniversary," she said. "Everyone's
going to be here. But we're letting employees do what they want to
do. If anyone is upset that day, we would provide support for them."
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Tom Williams,
spokesman for Wal-Mart's corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., said
the giant retailer, which will be open for business that day, plans
"a day of quiet reflection" on the anniversary of Sept.
11 and will provide messages of support to its associates throughout
the day.
"There'll
be a period of silence on that day but we're looking to coordinate
that with the national period of silence," he said. "We
won't be advertising that day."
But representatives
of Las Vegas daily newspaper and cable television outlets say they've
seen no large reduction in advertising for Sept. 11.
"The trade
publications and other newspapers we've talked to were discussing
a possible decline, but it's my sense that we're not seeing a large
cutback here," said Bob Brown, director of advertising for the
Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun, which operate under
a joint-operating agreement for ad sales.
"Those that
normally advertise on Wednesdays are running that day," he said.
Steve Schorr,
a vice president for Cox Communications Inc. in Las Vegas, said the
city's dominant cable television system has not seen a decrease in
advertising that day. The firm earlier decided to offer more than
30 percent more time for public service announcements that day.
"We made
a commitment early on to do PSAs at a higher level that day so that
organizations like the Red Cross can get their messages out,"
Schorr said.
The firm learned
after making that commitment that several cable networks, including
Lifetime, USA and Discovery Channel, are beefing up public service
announcements for the day as well.
Cox also plans
a special patriotic ceremony Wednesday morning, will give employees
red, white and blue ribbons to place on a tree in its courtyard and
will ask drivers of its more than 370 vehicles to drive with their
headlights on all day.
"The tree
will serve as a visual tribute for the special, yet solemn day,"
Cox said in a statement.
Dale Erquiaga,
vice president of brand services for R&R Partners, the state's
largest advertising agency, said a few of the firm's hotel accounts
chose not to advertise Sept. 11 and that other accounts did a thorough
review of their advertising messages for sensitivity.
"The Las
Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority wasn't running ads at the
time anyway, but the others chose to be dark because of sensitivity
issues and appropriateness," he said. "A lot of programming
will be pre-empted that day, so accounts wouldn't know (what) they
would be run with, so you have to consider those issues."
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Canterbury
Park Closes 2002 Live Meet
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 SHAKOPEE,
MN – Canterbury
Park in Shakopee, MN announced on September 9 the final
results of its 2002 live racing meet highlighted by record attendance
figures. The 2002 meet, with 61 days of live racing, saw 265,363
racing fans pass through the Canterbury
Park turnstiles. The season total represents an increase
of 8.5% over the 61-day 2001 meet. The average daily attendance
was 4,350 compared to 4,010 last season. Both the total attendance
and daily average attendance are the highest since the track
re-opened in 1995 and reflect the fifth consecutive year of
attendance gains.
On the strength
of a 9.5% increase in simulcast wagering, average daily on-track
total handle (live and simulcast) increased from $490,493 in
2001 to $502,510, an increase of 2.4%. Average daily on-track
live handle of $250,000 represented a 4% decrease from $261,000
in 2001. The decrease in on-track live handle can be attributed
primarily to a 3.5% decrease in the number of live races run
from 599 in 2001 to 578 in 2002. Due to dangerous weather conditions,
Canterbury
Park was forced to cancel portions of two race cards. In
addition, one racing day that was canceled completely due to
lightning storms was not included in the averages for the 2002
season, which had been slated for 62 live racing days.
The absence
of the large out-of-state wagering on the 2001 Claiming Crown
(over $2.5 million) was cited as the reason for an 8.6% decline
in the total amount wagered on Canterbury
Park live races ($26.5 million in 2002 compared to $29.0
million in 2001). Claiming Crown, which was held at Philadelphia
Park this year after a three-year stint at Canterbury
Park, is expected to return to Shakopee in 2003.
Total average
daily purse payments of $117,620 represented a slight decrease
from $121,058 in 2001 due to a reduced stakes schedule as a
result of not hosting Claiming Crown in 2002. A 5% mid-season
purse increase resulted in an increase in average daily overnight
purses of 3.6% to $92,501 per day in spite of the 3.5% reduction
in the number of races conducted.
The unusually
wet summer also had an impact on the average starters per Thoroughbred
race, which fell from 9.0 in 2001 to 8.6 in 2002. Poor track
conditions brought on by record setting rainfall, combined with
11 days worth of turf racing being moved to the main track resulted
in a significant increase in scratches compared to the prior
year.
"We
are thrilled with the attendance gains, which reflects the enthusiastic
response to horse racing by our live racing fans," said
Canterbury
Park President Randy Sampson. "Also, the strong growth
in our on-track simulcast business shows we are continuing to
develop our core handicapping customer base. The declines in
wagering on our live races, both on-track and out-of state,
were disappointing, but not unexpected considering the absence
of Claiming Crown and the weather related reductions in the
number of live races conducted during the meet. With Claiming
Crown scheduled to return in 2003 and a little help from Mother
Nature, we are looking forward to what we expect to be a record
year in all statistical categories."
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