The dirt on the floor of the Plaza Hotel & Casino’s outdoor Core Arena is being freshened up on the last Thursday morning in May for the Monster Truck Insanity Tour happening later that night. Longtime Downtown Las Vegas visitors remember it as an underused parking lot until its transformation into an outdoor venue hosting equestrian accommodations, demolition derbies and the Junior National Finals Rodeo. It’s the perfect place for visitors who want to sleep as close as possible to their horses during NFR, but Core Arena is also part of a larger vision for new and niche experiences at the Plaza.
As part of a multimillion dollar renovation project, the Plaza renovated more than 100 rooms, with luxe rooms on the top four floors of the North Tower. The showroom is set to host a rotating roster of top stand-up comics in the fall. The fifth-floor pool has added two mouthwatering burgers to its menu, best consumed after paddling a ball back-and-forth on the dozen adjacent pickleball courts. A new soccer-themed game inspired by the Las Vegas Lights Football Club is coming to the casino and two weeks after an explosive July 4 party, the Plaza will host Former Mayor Oscar Goodman’s 80th birthday at the steakhouse that bears his name.
It all comes in the wake of the addition of new key positions to the executive team, according to CEO Jonathan Jossel. “One of my goals has been to see downtown continue to grow and the Plaza to be a bigger share of that growth, which is definitely happening if you read the reports,” says Jossel, who has been with the Plaza for 10 years (He's been CEO for five). “I didn’t need a better team. I wanted a bigger, more experienced team to continue to grow the business and create these guest experiences.”
To that end, the Plaza has been joined by distinguished food-and-beverage specialists Ryan Rowland, who oversaw the transition of the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino to Park MGM; Michael Vakneen, who opened Pop Up Pizza at the Plaza; and Bronson Olimpieri, owner/operator of TCB Strategic, who works with the property on brand management, concept development and strategic initiatives.
Guests returning to the Plaza will find that they can summon Amazon’s Alexa in the new suites. Tourists will be coming from all over the country Sept. 24-28 for the second annual Las Vegas Pickleball Open. The Core Arena played host to the annual Las Vegas Days Rodeo (formerly Helldorado Days) in March and could become downtown’s choice destination for a paintball event in the coming year. It definitely aims to be downtown’s destination for laughing out loud when Comedy Works arrives in September, promising A-list talent in the showroom every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
“I wanted to create more in-house events that allowed us to grow irrespective of what was happening downtown,” says Jossel. “We have 1,000 rooms, which makes us the second biggest hotel downtown. If we can continue to fill those rooms with a good demographic and utilize the calendar around downtown as well as our own events, we are going to be in a very good position.”
