Digital Social Hour - How a 29-Year-Old Became a Vegas CEO | Jonathan Jossel DSH #1256

Episode Date: March 22, 2025

🎰 How does someone become a CEO of a Vegas hotel at just 29? Tune in now to Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly as Jonathan Jossel, CEO of The Plaza Hotel in Downtown Las Vegas, shares his incredible journey! 🚀 From navigating rigorous gaming licenses to revitalizing the iconic downtown district, Jonathan takes us behind the scenes of Vegas's transformation. 🌟 This episode is packed with valuable insights into leadership, the casino business, and the future of Downtown Vegas. Learn how Jonathan's vision elevated The Plaza and how collaboration with other casinos is reshaping the city's entertainment scene. 🏙️ Whether it's the art of creating unforgettable guest experiences, the impact of festivals, or the legacy of visionaries like Tony Hsieh and Steve Wynn, this conversation is a must-watch for anyone fascinated by the magic of Vegas. ✨ Don't miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets! 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🔥 Join the conversation and discover how innovation, passion, and perseverance can lead to big wins. 🎉 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:30 - Becoming CEO at 29 02:20 - Las Vegas Business Growth 04:10 - Super Bowl Weekend Experience 06:00 - Las Vegas Pricing Issues 06:40 - Biggest Political Controversy 09:04 - Steve Wynn's Impact 13:18 - Legacy in Las Vegas 13:29 - The Early Days of the Podcast 13:30 - Competition Among Vegas Casinos 16:58 - Zipline Adventure 22:05 - Learning from Tony Hsieh's Leadership 23:28 - Tony Hsieh's Influence on Plaza Renovations 24:12 - Exploring Downtown Las Vegas 26:36 - Best Off-Strip Restaurants 27:40 - Where to Find Jonathan 27:41 - Future Plans for the Plaza APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Jonathan Jossel https://www.instagram.com/jonathanjossel/ SPONSORS: SPECIALIZED RECRUITING GROUP:  https://www.srgpros.com/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/

Well, by promoting downtown as a blank canvas, right? Come downtown, walk the streets. Oh, and by the way, you're going to watch the killers, imagine dragons, some of the biggest bands in the world playing in the streets of downtown. And what a better way to advertise the area to people. So it was pretty amazing to see how that worked. But as a business, festivals are tough business. All right, guys, got a Vegas local on today.

Jonathan, CEO of the Plaza Hotel downtown. Thanks for coming on, man. Thank you for having me. This is awesome. Yeah. Appreciate the, appreciate the setup over here. Appreciate your time. I know you're quite busy with that role.

Not really. I enjoy doing this stuff. It's good to meet people in the community. Good to meet Vegas locals like yourself. And that's how we, that's how we get the people in the community. Good to meet Vegas locals like yourself. And, uh, that's how we, that's how we get the plaza on the map by talking about as much as we can. I love it.

Yeah. You started as CEO at 29. That must've been a record for youngest at the time, I'd imagine. Yeah. I was the youngest, uh, when not CEO, but gaming licensee. So to hold a gaming, like you're on a hotel casino in Vegas, you have to have a license, I went through that licensing process and became the CEO when I was 29 years old. That must have been a rigorous process, I'd imagine.

You know, what's funny is it is, but when you're so young, you don't have trusts and different investments and kids and all these other things that typically they would investigate. So I didn't have other properties. I was, you know, 28 when I started the process. So it was a pretty straightforward process, but they still investigate everything. Your bank accounts. I'm originally from England.

Oh, wow. So, you know, you go to submit your bank records from the UK and they go through everything. It took a nine to 12 months. Nice. I got citizenship out there. In England? Yeah.

Oh, nice. My dad was born there. You've been out there at all? Been to Ireland. Okay. I need to get out to England though. You got to use your citizenship. I know.

Well, I might have to claim it because he was born there. So I don't know how it works, but he said I could claim it whenever I wanted to. Oh, England though. You got to use your citizenship. I know. Well, I might have to claim it. Cause he was born there, so I don't know how it works, but he said I could claim it whenever I wanted to. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. You should probably do that. Yeah.

If you want it. If I want it. Yeah. It's hard. We're going to go then. It's hard to beat America, man. You know, I agree with you. I was born in South Africa, grew up in London, England, been 17 years here in

Vegas and nowhere else in the world I'd want to be. Wow. And that's not just America. Vegas is the best. You've seen a lot of growth here. That's the place to live in Vegas. nowhere else in the world I'd want to be. Wow. And that's not just America. Vegas is the best. You've seen a lot of growth here. That's the place to live in Vegas. Yeah. It's mind blowing.

I mean, I've been primarily in downtown Las Vegas to see the growth down there has been awesome. But as a city, it's just completely evolved. And wow, is it just only going to grow more in the next decade? Yeah. With the sports teams coming in from real estate. Yeah. Real estate, sports teams, everyone in California wanting to move here.

Especially after the fires. Yeah. Yeah. It was happening before that, but even more so now, um, I feel like I'm speaking like the mayor now promoting Las Vegas, but yeah, it's, it's, the growth is amazing, the development and, and just the diversity just was only casinos. Now you'd like, you mentioned sports, but there's also tech moving here. There's other investment coming here.

Hollywood's here. Mark Wahlberg's here. It's pretty, pretty diverse. You're here. Hollywood's here. Mark Wahlberg's here. It's pretty, pretty diverse. You're here. I'm here. Yeah. Social hours here. Four years here.

And, uh, it's been the best city I've ever lived in. I'll say that. Where were you before? I was in LA for a bit. I was in Jersey city and Bridgewater, New Jersey. And you always wear your face on your show. Always. I just ordered new.

How many things do you have? I know I have a hundred of these actually. So I, people think I wear the same shirt every day, but I just swap them. Okay. Why put on a tie for you today? I don't normally wear a tie, but. Oh, I'm honored. No, I'm sure I was at the gaming control board just that.

I'm sure that was a fun meeting. It was a great meeting. No, I just ordered new merch though. Cause people in the comments are like, is that kid wearing the same shirt every day? Yeah. I almost went full, uh, Mark Zuckerberg and just bought a hundred white shirts. Why don't you? I feel like the branding is a better look than just white shirts.

You know, as long as it just plain white shirts, not the Kanye West white shirts. Yeah. Well, Kanye has been going crazy. I don't know if you see not a man. Yeah, I'm Jewish. I've seen, I'm sure all your friends are talking about it. Then all his, uh, tweets got deleted or you just deactivated it. As they should, as they should. Yeah. Did you see a stupid bowl commercial? I actually missed that. I don't know how I was busy at the hotel.

So I did hear about it, but I didn't actually see the commercial, but I'm going to have to check it out after this. Actually, I don't really want to watch it. I, I want to pretend this guy doesn't exist. It's horrible. Yeah. A lot of hate coming towards Jewish people, especially on X. Yeah, man.

Yeah. Although I think a lot of it is just the algorithm finds people. It's like, I don't see a lot of that, but it's, uh, it's definitely out there. It's a pretty scary time. How big, uh, was the Superbowl event for you for the hotel? It was good, obviously hard to compare it to last year. Last year we had the Superbowl in Las Vegas, so it was packed and a different type of busy.

But Las Vegas is always one of the busiest, uh, Superbowl is always one of the busiest times of the year in Las Vegas, top three, I'd say it was very good. It wasn't as busy as previous years. There's a lot of rumors as to, or rumblings as to a lot of underperformance in, in hotel rates and ticket sales for the parties, but I think it's pretty simple that the fires in California, uh, definitely put a dampener on the mood and, and as it should, I mean, there's what I think 30 to 40% of the business that comes to us Vegas comes from California and Arizona.

I didn't know that. Those two states. So when you consider that it's a, you know, you take a huge chunk of that market out of it, it's going to put a dampener on the mood mixed in with obviously a, an uncertain political climate. Searching for the perfect job can be overwhelming. You know, it's out there, you just don't know how to find it. The good news? You don't have to do it alone. Shout out to today's sponsor,

Specialized Recruiting Group. Specialized Recruiting Group is here to help. Personalized job search support tailored to your skills and needs, they connect job seekers with contract and full-time roles. The best part is that it's completely free for job seekers. Specialized recruiting group is ready to find the talent you need. Go to srgprose.com See how our recruitment specialists with a deep understanding of experience and expertise you need can find the right fit for your business. After all, you deserve to see the best candidates possible both active and passive. Visit srgprose.com today to start your job search. If you don't see the right job listed, SRG also recruits for confidential roles.

Just call a local office to learn more. Take the next step in your career today at srgpros.com. In some ways, and some people think it's the pricing on the strip is just gone out of control and maybe that's an element, but that's not a new thing. The fires in California seemed like a direct correlation to the slowdown in the last couple of weeks. Plus stocks tanked that week. Crypto market was down.

Everything was, it was just bad timing all around, you know? Yeah. But it was still great. We still did, we still did really good. Still want about better weekends. And the Monday after Superbowl is always a great day as well. People forget that they think the game, the game is Sunday, but Monday after Superbowl is still a great day as well. People forget that they think the game is Sunday, but Monday after Superbowl is still super busy.

Really? Oh, I didn't expect that. Yeah, it's great. About people be hung over and given up on drinks. No, no. So what happens to all the people that won all their big sports bets and now gamble that. Oh, they stop on that.

Speaking of gambling, I saw Vegas Polysee make a video about how the profits were down this quarter, 40% on the strip. Uh, for the year, for the year. Oh, was it for the year? Okay. Yeah. Where did on the strip? For the year. For the year. Oh, was it for the year? Okay. Yeah. Where did you see that? Vegas policy.

Oh, okay. Fine. Yeah. I feel like he's pretty accurate with his reportings. Yeah. Real sources of information. Yeah. Well, he's very numbers driven. He sure is. You got to give him that. I don't check his numbers, but I'm sure he is very accurate.

You haven't banned him yet, right? I haven't banned him. No, he calls me the next Steve Wins. How can I ban a guy who says I'm the next Steve Wins? It's wonderful. His resorts world has banned him., right? I haven't banned him. No, he calls me the next Steve wins. How can I ban a guy who says I'm the next Steve win? It's wonderful. As a resource world is banned him. I saw that. Yeah.

I heard that I, you know, I think there's an element to how much you, you, you hate on a place and it's a tough industry. It's a tough thing. So, uh, but he speaks his mind and I give him credit for that. And he's, you know, he's certainly entertaining people, people like what he's doing and we haven't banned him. In fact, he comes and plays this game called pop craps at the plaza. He loves it.

You know, unlike other influences and other people, we don't pay him. We don't do anything. He just comes there as his own, as a customer. And so it's, I like getting real life feedback from customers. So he gives me real life feedback and he's a good guy. He's a good guy. And like I said, he calls me the next Steve Wynn. So I can't hate him for that.

Was Steve Wynn someone you studied when you were starting out in this industry? Yes, a lot. I mean, my one regret is I never got to work for him. I never got to learn directly from him. I met him many times, dozen, 20 times or so, but, um, over dinners and stuff, and you realize how brilliant the guy was. Yeah.

Uh, so I studied him and, and tried to learn from him as much as I could without having the direct, so I studied him and, and tried to learn from him as much as I could, without having the direct, uh, influence from him, but we, we had dinners and, you know, at dinner, he would, he could express how good he, or how knowledgeable it was, he was about bingo. And we share a love of bingo. We're the only game, we're the only game, bingo in downtown. He, he started in bingo halls.

Really? He could talk about wine. He could talk about art. He could talk about sport. I could talk about art. He could talk about sport. I mean, the guy was so intelligent. He could talk about literally anything and eloquently, intelligently. It was pretty amazing to see.

That's impressive. Yeah. Cause as a CEO, you got to know a little bit about every single game you, you have at the casino, right? Right. But he knows a lot about everything that was, that was stood out to me. I can speak a little bit about bingo and like, I'm passionate about all like American football, where he can remember plays and games.

He can remember he called it, you know, to call a bingo game is a certain skill set he explained to me and how B 15, like the, the, the, the sound of your voice, as you call out the game is a skill to that. And he went through a whole, he called a game bingo over a dinner one night. What? It was pretty, it was pretty impressive. It was pretty interesting. What was your biggest, I guess, takeaway from those dinners with him? What did you?

Um, there's a few things, but, uh, he, he told me the idea of cause and effect, which is that, you know, casinos aren't, uh, or gambling isn't the effect. Uh, it's, it's the, sorry, isn't the cause. It's the effect. The cause is everything that goes into the experience. It's the, the guest experience't the cause. It's the effect. The cause is everything that goes into the experience. It's the, the guest experience from the site, the smell. He understood more than anybody else what people want. And he explained once you give them that they're going to spend more time in your casino.

They're going to play more of them, their wallet with you. And he really understood what people wanted more than anybody I've ever, uh, come across. And, and, and to be honest with you, you look at the strip today, the best properties are still the ones he built. And that's, I was at Spargo last night, the fountains were going and there was tons of people watching it. He did that 26 years ago and it's still relevant today. It's still interesting today.

You know, when you think about some of the newer developments on the strip, they lack that brilliance and touch. Not to say that they're not amazing. They're beautiful. They're nice. They're amazing. But, but for whatever reason, what Steve Wynn built people crave. They came from all over the world to see it.

And, uh, some of that's lacking today. I'd say maybe the sphere has that effect. I, you know, I travel wherever you go in the world, people are like, the sphere is cool, the sphere is interesting and people want to see it from all over the world. I think that Steve Wynn had the ability to build things, um, that people gravitated towards, felt comfortable in. And even now the Wynn is the best property. You know, people can debate that, but the Wynn is the best property in the city.

And it's because of him, he built it. And so, yeah, he's, he's a legend, a legend and very impressive. And, uh, frankly, the guy who made the city, what it is, if you really break it down in the right ways. And shout out to his nephew, Blake, when he was a good friend of mine, he's been crushing it out here too. That's right. Isn't, uh, he's partners with, uh, Oscar Goodman's, uh, uh, they work together.

Yeah. On the celebrity poker tournament. Yes. Yeah. They'd be crushing it. What they're doing is incredible. Yeah. But yeah, I agree with you. I got win number one, Venetian number two. Okay. Yeah. They'd be crushing it. What they're doing is incredible. Yeah. But yeah, I agree with you.

I got wind number one, Venetian number two. Okay. Yeah. Venetian solid and they just did renovations. Hey, no surprise that the two best operators in the history of the city, Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson built the two. Yeah. Yeah.

No surprise at all. I mean, people, people build the right way. They understand what people want and they give, they give people what they want. It'll be successful long-term. So yeah, they were both maestros in different ways, but Steve Wynn really understood the human connection of what people experience from the sight, the smell, the taste, everything when you walk through that building the customer service, even now the guys that are working there, they were all, not still all of them, but many of them were trained by Steve Wynn, learned through Steve Wynn and that's how it's able to

continue some of that excellence. Yeah. The energy in that hotel, they've just done a phenomenal job of making you feel important when you're walking those halls. Yeah. You know, I used to film my podcast at the Wynn. I felt like a savage every time. Was that the studio thing that they have?

Yeah. It's next to the Lafay. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen that one? I have. It's a $5 million studio. That's what I mean. They just, they're willing to invest.

Well, and who uses it now? Uh, series six, I'm losing it now. So they film their shows out of there, but it was a different company. But they should move my show though. Yeah, you should man. Get signed to Sirius. Where do you film yours now at the Plaza? Yeah.

So we started a podcast five years ago at the bar in Oscars. Oh yeah. And in the studio at the bar. Yeah. And the idea was, you know, we'd have people come in, have drinks, whatever, hang out, and, uh, didn't think it was going to last. I think we've done about 140 episodes now. Well done.

It's quite a lot for a podcast, right? It is. Not a lot of, uh, shows get to episode 10. Right. I read that. I read, most people give up long before that. Yeah. Uh, no, we're at 140 and we've been able to, my goal with it is, um, I hope that

one day people look back at a snapshot in time from like 2020 to, you know, the next decade of what was Las Vegas like and who told the story of the history of Las Vegas. So we've had historians on, we've had business operators. It's not a commercial for the Plaza. It's really just a way to tell the story of Vegas. Who's, who's doing what we've had. Probably 10 casino owners on the, on the podcast, general managers, people just in the industry and, and then we've had, you know, local influences,

other celebrities, but just trying to tell the story of the people that contributed to Vegas for that period of time. Maybe my kids will listen to one day it'll be a class at UNLV. I hope, I hope with my kids, they listen to a few of my episodes too. You know, legacy is important. How old are your kids? 20. Uh, I don't have them yet.

Oh, I was going to say. I'm getting married this year though. So soon, soon. important. How old are your kids? Uh, I don't have them yet. Oh, I was going to say, I'm getting married this year though. So soon, soon. Congratulations. Thank you. Um, so casino owners have been on the podcast. So how do you view competition in Vegas? Is it, is it pretty like your friends or like, is there actual

competition with other casinos? You know, um, I really think of downtown as its own sort of sub-mark, right? I don't see us, we obviously compete with the strip in different ways, but on the whole, my main focus is with the other casino owners of downtown, I think they've all realized along with myself, we're better if downtown's better. So the best thing that ever happened to the, one of the best things that happened to the Plaza is Circa being built across the street. In traditional logic, you'd be like, no, that's going to be competitive.

That's not going to be good for you, but it doesn't work that way in the casino world. Having that building across the street has meant more people coming downtown, higher spenders coming down, better quality customers coming downtown. And so it's changed the perception. Same as Golden Nugget, same as every property that's upgraded in the last decade has only helped downtown. The plaza has been one of the biggest reinvestment stories. We've done a lot with the property.

So to see that come back, sure, we compete with each other for market share, but the idea is it's much more important that the market grows and that's what's been happening in downtown is the market's been growing more and more people coming downtown means that we do better as a result of that. And so that's really been the story I talk about as the neighborhood effect. Yeah. When you looked around where I was in downtown called a decade ago, you had a Greyhound bus station, you had the jail shout out to the people in the

jail that are watching my fireworks shows. I didn't even think about that. That's cool. Uh, I learned that about 10 minutes ago. Yeah. Um, you, you had a jail, you had the Greyhound bus station, you had the train tracks, you had empty parcels. Today you have 800 apartments to the West, you have circuit to the East,

you have the new parking garage. We were able to evict the Greyhound bus station. You have so much development and improvements that the neighborhoods truly cleaned up. In, uh, I had read a stat in 89101, which was our zip code was the poorest zip code in the state. Wow. In the city. I don't know. Look, it was, I code was the poorest zip code in the state. Wow. In the city. I didn't know that.

It was. I, I can't imagine it is anymore because of all the developments and development and all these people living down there now has changed so much. So yeah, yeah, you're, you're, you're part of a much better neighborhood. Your business is going to do better. And so yes, there's a competitive element, no doubt about it, but I think, uh, we all work together. You know, when we do our fireworks every Friday, the other casinos promote it.

Cause they want people in their patios, their rooftops, their pools to all experience it. When life is beautiful used to happen. It was good for all the casinos, the F1, we did something called the neon city festival. Oh, I saw that. We all work together. We all brought new events together to make downtown a better place. It benefits all of us together. So there's a, I'd say it's 10% competitive, 90% let's work together to make downtown a better place.

Yeah. Whenever my fiance's family visits us, they prefer downtown over the strip. Really? It's interesting. Yeah. That's great. Cause you never know what you're going to see there. Yeah, that's true.

I mean, there's still an education process. I talk to people when I'm out at restaurants on the strip and they'll be like, Oh, downtown, you know, but once they get down there like, oh, wow, this is not what I expected. It's cleaned up. It's not grimy anymore. It's not. Yeah.

So there's still elements of, uh, uh, probably the crowds that you're referring to, but it's getting better and better every, and that's been my philosophy with the Plaza, you know, we could have knocked it down and started again, but I was like, no, let's, let's, uh, let's revitalize this thing one piece at a time and improve it. And that's what we do. We went through every hotel room, every F and B opportunity, the casino, the entertainment. We have a new show that called Mavericks.

Nice. It's been amazing. It's I'll check it out. I'll come see this. Yeah. I'm gonna try the steakhouse tonight too. Oh, cool. Yeah.

I haven't been there. Um, have you been on the zip line downtown? I have. I love it. It's true. There's the one where you sit in it and then there's the one you fly. The flying one is what I'm talking about. I haven't tried it. I'm a little scared, man. Yeah. You didn't get stuck? I didn't get stuck, but probably I'm too heavy. So I kept flying.

You just flew down. Yeah. I just kept going. No, I didn't get stuck. What are your predictions for Circus Circus? They just listed it for sale, right? I heard that. I imagine, I don't know, I'm skeptical that it actually sells, although I did go in there. There's a spend, I don't know. I'm skeptical that it actually sells, although I did go in there. There's this bend. I don't know if you've seen these vending machines where you get sports cards and Pokemon. Oh, I saw it on Instagram. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I went in there to see one of them at circus circus. We have one at the plaza as well. They're pretty cool. You'll see it tonight. The plaza.

They are cool. Um, and the, and the, um, the property needs some new life and some new energy. Uh, I think again, what I was just speaking about with downtown, if it got revitalized and reenergized, it would really help fountain blue, Sahara, Stratosphere, everything down the north end of the strip. But I also heard that they wanted five billion. Five billion. That's a lot of money to pay for something that I don't know what it makes,

but it's, it was pretty quiet the last time I went in there. Yeah. I will say I've been at their steakhouse. It's not bad. Yeah. They've got a good reputation for the steakhouse, but I feel like, you know, we used to have the same thing said about the Plaza. We had Oscar's steakhouse, but, but there's no point in having a good

steakhouse if everything around it isn't the same or similar experience. It doesn't have to be as high end or as fine dining, but you've got to be able to keep the people that are comfortable. You don't want them just to park, eat a steak and then leave. That's, that's not good for anybody as a business operator. So, uh, yeah, they need some, they need some TLC there. Although my kids love the, um, when you have kids one day, you'll see they, they love the adventure dome, the place in the back of Circus Circus

where the roller coasters are. All that stuff. I could see that. Well, they're, they're old. They were built in what the 50s, 60s Circus Circus. I don't know when that adventure dome was built. I can't 60s circus. I don't know when that bench was built. That can't be that old. But the circus probably is.

The hotel. Yeah. I think they're one of the oldest. But even yours was built in 71, right? Yes. That's one of the oldest it has to be. It was built in 71. It was one of the largest hotel casinos in the world.

So a huge amount of history. And what's really cool about it was that it was at one Main Street. It was located where Vegas began. Wow. It's the first address in the world. Uh, so a huge amount of history. And what's really cool about it was that it was at one main street. It was located where Vegas began. Wow. It's the first address in the city. It's on the back of the train tracks. If you've studied the history of Vegas and you've heard how the train used to come into the city, uh, and drop off the walkers for the Huber dam, that

was the spot right there. That was the train, the Amtrak train station was at the Plaza. And so we, um, that's where the Plaza was built. That's where it was called the Union Pacific, uh, UPR, um, is the Union Pacific railroad and there was called the Union Plaza, um, when it was built. So that was 71 and then they added the second tower. Uh, so it's a thousand rooms and it sits on the biggest piece of land in all of downtown at 17 acres. Wow.

Biggest privately owned piece of land in, in the whole city, in, in all of downtown. I's 17 acres. Wow. Biggest privately owned piece of land in the whole city, in all of downtown. I didn't know you guys had that much. That's impressive. Yeah. Well, we have an equestrian center out there now. Oh. So like during the rodeo, we do rodeos. I'm definitely the only Jewish English guy throwing rodeos.

NFR is always a blast, man. I love NFR, man. Best people, best time of year. It's fun. Best people all agree with that. Yeah. Those are the greatest, most pure and innocent people I've ever met. Love man. I love NFR, man. Best people, best time of year. It's fun. Best people all agree with that. Yeah. Those are the greatest, most pure and innocent people I've ever met.

Love it. They love it. They come to Vegas for 10 days and everyone has a good time. Yeah. I went the first time last year. Oh, you did at Thompson Mac? Yeah, at Thompson Mac. It was packed.

Packed. Every night sold out. Oh my God. There's nothing like it. I couldn't believe it. There was more people there than like an NBA game. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's a big deal. And by the way, those tickets are valuable.

People go nuts. Really? Oh wow. Shout out to Tyson Durfee for hooking me up. I didn't know they were valuable. Oh yeah. I know. Those tickets are like gold dust that time of year, but he wants to go to the, uh,

to the NFR. Yeah. I was excited for the bull riding, man. Can you imagine what those guys do to themselves? Dude, I think it's a lot. The longest one I saw was five seconds. Those guys just fall off instantly. Well, that's, and then the ball attacks them.

Yeah. It's, it's wild. It's, uh, so we, we threw our own road here as well in November, court held a rado. Oh, wow. You have to come down to that. I'd love to. It's fun.

So we do that. And then the NFR is in December. So we have a new question set out there. We also had life is beautiful there this last summer. Uh, we did a festival out there. So we've got ideas for that 17 acres to develop it down the road. Smart. Yeah.

Life is beautiful did really well, right? I saw that everywhere. Life is beautiful did well. It was, it was for 10 years, Tony Shay started it. He was the guy, he was the founder of Zappos and then invested in downtown. And really did an amazing job, not running a festival, but promoting downtown as a blank canvas, right? Come downtown, walk the streets.

Oh, and by the way, you're going to watch the killers, Imagine Dragons, some of the biggest bands in the world playing at, you know, in the streets of downtown. And what a better way to advertise the area to people. So it was pretty amazing to see how that worked, but as a business, festivals are tough business. And so when he passed away, I don't think there was the appetite to continue running at the way that he, he was. Yeah. A vision that he had for downtown.

Yeah, they are tough. I know we got the EDC stuff here. Not those wall, but. Well, EDC is another animal. It's the biggest festival in the, one of the biggest festivals in the world. And they have no problem selling tickets and they could probably sell no matter who was playing that festival. But that's, that's a one-off as opposed to some of the other festivals.

That makes sense. Did you get the opportunity to learn anything from Tony show? I did a lot, a lot. who was playing that festival, but that's, that's a one off as opposed to some of the other festivals. That makes sense. Did you get the opportunity to learn anything from Tony show? I did a lot, a lot. I mean, I got to know him really well. He uh, amazing mind and really what blew my, what blew my mind about him was he just thought about everything a little bit different, that, you know, we all think of things in the same way.

He interpreted everything in a different way. And I remember sitting in a meeting with him and there was a bunch of downtown developers and owners and they were all talking about how do we communicate that downtown is different. This is probably in 2012, 2013. And he just sat there in silence, listening, listening. And then finally said, look, it doesn't matter what you communicate. If they come down here and the experience isn't good, they're not going to come

back and they're not going to talk about, you're going to waste that money. And that really stuck with me with the hotel business as well. Like there's no point in marketing something where you're not proud of the experience and you're not delivering on what you say you're going to deliver on. And, uh, he was, he was spot on with that. And, and, uh, we've tried to carry that through with the Plaza, but he told me a lot of things, also just the idea of he was open to everything. He never shut down ideas right away, no matter how crazy they were or weird they

were, he listened, he processed it, he thought about it and staying, staying open-minded, especially in today, people are very close-minded. He was always open-minded listening and didn't always do it, but at least would flush everything out and give it a chance. And it's easy to just dismiss ideas. Some of those are the best ideas. That's true. Right.

Steve Jobs. Right. Steve jobs. Yeah. It makes you, uh, makes me wonder cause you said you did renovations, right? Yeah. So Tony might've played a role in that idea. Yeah. We, we had done a few before that and we had helped, um, he had, he had really, uh, come into downtown about three years after I had moved out here and we had worked

together very closely to try to change the perception of downtown. And he was, he was a big part of, uh, everybody increasing their appetite to improve downtown. And he really, he, he didn't actually do much, but he changed the perception real quickly. Everyone's like, Oh, that's Tony Hsieh. He's doing this. And he had this book at the time called delivering happiness, which is amazing book. If you've not read it, um, I highly recommend it.

And he, he invested in downtown and put downtown on the map in a much quicker way that would have otherwise happened. Yeah. I'm a fan of downtown, man. It's cool. Isn't it? Like, I'm not just saying that cause you're here. Like you could have a fun night there and not spend too much money. Yeah.

And you could see all sorts of performances. Sometimes someone calls, uh, singing there. Yeah, it's great. We're, we're really proud of it. And, and I think there's a lot more potential. These, you see, there's a high rise being built down on Symphony Park, right behind us. There's a new contemporary art museum being built by Elaine Wynn.

There's, there's a lot of good things happening down there. I just think that we, we definitely made a big start, but there's a long way to go into a lot of downtown can continue to evolve into and become, and it's the gambling Mecca. I think it should be, you know, you talk to Paulie C, but when you talk about better gaming odds, people want to have their money last a bit longer, right? So instead of playing triple zero roulette, playing single zero, triple zero, instead of playing six to five blackjack, you should be playing three to two blackjack. So they're playing two times or three, four, five times odds on crap.

You should be playing 10 times odds on craps. And a lot of people don't know that, but they feel that they feel their money's gone much quicker. And I think that downtown has a chance to really stand out by differentiating on that. Yeah. Cause you guys have lower minimums too, which is good. No minimums, but better odds.

Yeah. That's the key. Cause if you go to the win on a busy night, oh my gosh. $50 blackjack. $50 blackjack. Yeah. I only gamble personally with like maybe 500 bucks. So like I'm getting wrecked quick.

If I go there, you know, you go on a bad street, you're done right away. Yeah. There's a couple of double downs. Yeah. And there's some good restaurants downtown too, man. It really is. What's that Italian spot? Oh, yes.

There's kitchen. I go there once a month. Esther's kitchen is great. And they just moved to a bigger spot, right? They just moved about about a year. Maybe that was a year ago. Okay. Soul belly, the barbecue place kitchen is great. And they just moved to a bigger spot, right? They just moved about a year maybe. Oh, that was a year ago. Okay. Soul Belly, the barbecue place downtown is amazing.

A couple of great steak houses, Oscars. Went to Vic and Anthony's the other night at Golden Nugget. Very good. Yeah, no, there's great. There's great restaurants downtown. La Tye was my first project in town when I moved here. We, we, oh, but that was you. We did the, yeah, we don't know La Tye.

We own the building. Oh, okay. So we bought La Tye downtown. I ordered that like once the building. Oh, okay. So we bought the Lattai downtown. I order that like once a month. It's great. Some of the best times. To see the turnaround. But, you know, a lot of people always say to me, what's your favorite restaurant on the

strip? Like the best restaurants are not on the strip. I agree. There are good restaurants on the strip. There are also amazing restaurants on the strip, but if you say the best, I'd probably go off the strip right now. Yeah. Well, if you ask a local about that, they're always going to say off strip spots.

But there are some great places and the experiences are pretty cool. Like you go to SW, you sit out there on the, on the lake there and the show's great. But it's more than just the food, it's the whole experience, but just pure good quality food. There's some great places off the strip as well. Is there still that negative stigma around the old strip? Like you people still think it's kind of grimy and stuff? I think Fremont street, there is a little bit of that and they've been challenged because it's a public street.

It's really hard to control some of the elements that come out onto that street. Some of the buskers are a problem. Um, we, we've sort of taken the view of, look, people are going to come downtown to see Fremont street experience because of the history, the neon, the light show, the zip line, whatever it is. But when they're done with that, and for some people that might be three minutes because they're like, no. And for some people that might be three minutes because they're like, no. And for some people that might be an hour.

We want to create an environment where they can go afterwards. Like, so we built the carousel bar, pink box donuts, an outdoor patio at our steak house, all because when people are done with the three months tree, they should be able to go to a place where they're like, oh, okay, I'm removed from that. It's crazy. It's cool. I saw it. Now they want to go somewhere else.

And so we've, we've tried to elevate some of our experiences exactly for that. And there's still an element of the griminess to the, to the street, but it's, it's getting better. That's good. And there's more places to go when you're done with it, whether it's the arts district, East Fremont, the other casinos, it's tons of other places to go to. I love it. Well, Jonathan, what's next for you?

What's next for the hotel? Where can people keep up with you and watch the podcast and everything? So our podcast is called On The Corner of Main Street. We do it about once every two weeks. We release an episode, always obviously Vegas related. I'm on Instagram at Jonathan Jassel. I put my email out everywhere. I was on Twitter.

I talk to customers if they need anything with the hotel. Again, it's you got to be guerrilla marketing, grassroots, right? You got to take care of one person at a time. And then, you know, for me, I think we, like I said, we've just scratched ourselves on the plaza and continued to remodel the hotel. We're doing two new restaurants this year. We're going to open up. Nice.

Last year we did the carousel bar, the pink Box Donuts, the Sand Dollar bar was two years ago. Every year we take on new projects to upgrade the property. And really longer term we got that 10 acres. I'll show you tonight when you come down there on the roof. I'll show you an overview of some of our ideas of what we're thinking for all that development. You know, taking the plaza, making the plaza the best place in downtown. Let's go. Can't wait to stop by tonight. Check out the Plaza Hotel guys. Check out Jonathan's show.

I'll see you guys next time.