|
Home
>> MGM Grand Las Vegas
The MGM Grand Las Vegas opened in 1993
in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, it has the most rooms in a single
hotel in the world with 5,044 rooms, 3,153 of which are no
smoking. It also houses a casino, numerous shops and night
clubs, and an arena that is a major concert venue. It is owned
and operated by the MGM Mirage company. It is predominantly
green in color.
The building is 293 feet (89 m) high, with
30 floors, five outdoor pools, a 380,000 square foot (35,000
m²) convention center, the MGM Grand Arena, CBS Television
City, and the Grand Spa. The casino at 171,500 square feet
(16,000 m²) is the largest in Las Vegas.
The Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard intersection,
where the MGM Grand is located, is extremely busy. Pedestrians
are not allowed to cross at street level. Instead, the MGM
Grand is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to its neighboring
casinos: to the south across Tropicana Avenue, the Tropicana,
and to the west across the Strip, the New York-New York.
History
Before the current MGM Grand was built,
another hotel known as the "MGM Grand" was located
about a mile (2 km) north on the Las Vegas Strip. That site
is now occupied by Bally's Hotel & Casino.
In 1990 Kirk Kerkorian bought the Marina
Hotel to obtain the site that would become the home of the
MGM Grand.
When the latest MGM Grand opened on December
18, 1993, it was owned by MGM Grand Inc. At that time it had
an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald
City" color of the building and the decorative use of
Wizard of Oz memorabilia. The main entrance on the Strip was
inside the mouth of a giant lion.
In 2000, the hotel underwent a renovation
and almost all traces of the "Oz" theme were removed.
The theme is now The City of Entertainment.
When the MGM Grand opened, it included the
Grand Adventures theme park behind the casino. The plan was
to make Las Vegas more "family friendly" by providing
activities for children who were too young to gamble. The
theme park performed poorly, and did not reopen for the 2001
season. On December 5, 2002, MGM Mirage announced that the
former theme park would be developed as a luxury condominium
and hotel complex.
A monorail was built using old trains from
Disney World to connect the MGM Grand to Bally's. The track
was torn down and replaced when the Las Vegas Monorail was
built.
|
