Main Street Station to open ‘sometime next year,’ CEO says

One of downtown’s hotel-casinos likely won’t reopen its doors to the public until “sometime next year,” Boyd Gaming Corp. President and CEO Keith Smith said Monday.

Main Street Station will “certainly” open in 2021, followed by Eastside Cannery and Eldorado “in that order” depending on demand, Smith told investors on a conference call.

They represent the last three Boyd properties across the country that haven’t yet reopened during COVID-19 pandemic, Smith said. Overall, he said, Boyd stayed afloat in the third quarter due to cuts to its marketing and labor force during the pandemic.

“We are proud of our team’s ability to successfully execute our strategy and are committed to sustaining a more efficient and profitable operating model into the future,” Smith said.

Those cuts aren’t likely going away anytime soon. Boyd executives said the workforce reductions are likely the business model going forward.

“We view a lot of the changes that have taken place as permanent in nature,” Smith said.

Boyd’s Las Vegas locals properties became a strength for the company after a slow start to the third quarter, he said. Locals properties generated $171 million in revenue during the third quarter — a 20 percent decline in revenue from the same time last year, the company reported.

The company’s downtown properties struggled by comparison. Boyd’s downtown properties brought in $17.5 million over the period, down 71 percent from last year.

Boyd attributed its downtown struggles to “significant travel restrictions in Hawaii and overall declines in Las Vegas visitation.” Smith noted that the company’s downtown properties comprise a small portion of their overall portfolio.

The company also received a financial boost through its partnership with mobile sports betting company FanDuel Group, launching mobile betting platforms in Illinois and Iowa and “expanding our digital reach to more than 30 million adults nationwide,” the company reported ahead of an earnings call with investors.

Boyd brought in $652.2 million during the quarter compared with $819.6 million during the same period last year, according to its earnings report.

Boyd stocks closed at $34.06 per share, a drop of 1.84 percent, according to Yahoo Finance.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.