17-RECORD SETTING DAYS FOR VENETIAN
It took just 17-days for the Venetian Macau to greet its one-millionth visitor - an all-time record in worldwide gaming.
Vegas commuter Mark Brown, who is the President of Sheldon Adelson’s two resorts there, gifted player Chan Ka Fu with $88,888 for good luck and picked up the tab for his two-night reservation “on the house.”
“A momentous achievement,” said Mark. The dizzying pace of visitors to the Venetian has continued from day one’s record number of 114,000 people who went through the front door. The opening weekend added another astonishing 170,000 people, with daily attendance now hitting as high as 86,000 people.
Sheldon -one of the world’s three richest billionaires- has inked contracts for two unique events in the next few weeks to keep the frenetic pace going non-stop. Within minutes of tickets going on sale for a world-classic showdown match between tennis greats Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, all 15,000 seats were sold with more than 20,000 Chinese fans flooding the internet site and hundreds more telephoning in orders and standing on line at the resort’s box office for the “Challenge of the Champions” November 24 event.
But first, another total sell-out when players from both the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers play Team China in pre-Olympic matches on October 18 and October 20. These will be the first NBA games ever held in Macau, the first basketball event hosted at the new Venetian Arena, and the first time the 15,000 seat Venetian Arena opens its doors!
Among the stars The Venetian Macau will be playing host to will be LeBron James, Cleveland’s All Star forward, and Dwight Howard, Orlando’s All-Star center, along with Rashard Lewis (added off-season to the team). Two Chinese networks will carry the games live and NBA officials assure me we will be able to see them here in Vegas on Cox-cable TV. I’m told that after Team China plays Orlando and Cleveland, the two American teams will even have their own court battle for bragging rights as USA winner in China!
Back here in Vegas, Bill Weidner, LV Sands Corp president commented: “We want to make Macau the sports hub and entertainment capital of the Asian region, just like Vegas is in America. Our arena there will have everything from world title boxing fights to figure skating and dirt-bike races. We’ll feature eight major sporting events every year that can be broadcast around the world. We want to turn Macao into Vegas, and we will change Macao forever.”