May 11th, 2007 By Justin Williams
Take Your Ball & Go Home
For those that haven’t been keeping score at home, the mayor and the new owner of Casino Aztar, Columbia Sussex, aren’t really the best of pals. In March, Weinzapfel called for an investigation by the Indiana Gaming Commission because of an abundance of layoffs at the downtown riverboat. Weinzapfel wanted the investigation because the number of people laid off was higher than originally announced by Columbia Sussex.
Now, the CEO of Columbia Sussex is pushing Weinzapfel into the ropes with comments he made in town yesterday. William Yung III said he hasn’t been welcomed to the city and as a result they will pull the plug on a planned $60 million expansion of the riverboat. The expansion would have brought an entertainment venue as well as more retail stores and restaurants to the Aztar area. The mayor was quick to respond that Yung most likely never had intentions of going forward with the expansion.
Can’t we all just get along?
photo courtesy of liberalmind1012
Filed In: Local News | Favorite This | Link
| 
Tagging your links in 
Tagging your photos in 
This is ridiculous, I want nothing more then to see our downtown expand! This is really all this city has got going for it.
Aztar has used up all it’s available space downtown. He never intended to expand anything here. He bought property in Vegas & this little riverboat was part of the package. He got rid of the one in Missouri. Just trying to make the mayor look bad for calling him out on his broken promises.
It is refreshing to see a politician that is not afraid to step on a toe or two. We do need urban development, I am just not sure we need anymore Las Vegas style entertainment.
By the way Editor….I don’t think that I have heard the word “pals” used in a sentence in the last five decades. Just wondering….????
My husband works at Aztar, so I get the insider’s perspective. As suziq states, Yung bought Aztar to get the Vegas property – he doesn’t care about Evansville’s boat. The proposed $60 million dollar “expansion” is about creating a “boat in a moat” type situation. If he cannot get that type of setup, Yung will probably just squeeze as much money as he can out of the current boat, and then sell it off. He may keep the hotel(s), as he sees those as valuable, but I hope he doesn’t, we’re best rid of Yung and Columbia-Sussex completely.