MGM President Reaffirms Commitment to Springfield Casino

When MGM broke ground on their proposed Springfield casino both MGM executives and Springfield officials were excited as the $800 million project was expected to generate a number of benefits for both parties. The journey till date has been filled with a few ups and a lot of downs as MGM look to complete the project as per a tight schedule.

The company recently announced that it had to make a number of modifications to its Springfield property and the biggest change included removing a 25 floor hotel and residential apartments. MGM decided to drop this phase of the project because the rise in construction costs had forced the company to rethink its Springfield blueprint. MGM will now construct around 30 residential apartments and a hotel comprising of six floors. The entire project is expected to finish before September 2018 provided there are no more delays.

The state of Connecticut recently approved additional tribal casinos to be constructed near the Massachusetts border as casinos in Connecticut were concerned that the MGM Springfield casino would attract Connecticut gamblers to move out of state and patronize the Springfield casino. MGM was unhappy to learn that the state gaming association in Connecticut had amended its laws in order to allow tribal casinos to be constructed near the border.

The extra competition from Connecticut along with rising costs of construction are factors that would have influenced the MGM leadership team in cutting back on the Springfield casino. Members of the Massachusetts state gaming association have been concerned with these new developments as Springfield is expected the casino to generate close to 3000 construction jobs and then hundreds of permanent jobs once the casino is opened to the public.

MGM President William Hornbuckle wanted to address these concerns and reaffirm the company’s commitment to Springfield. Hornbuckle met with Mayor Dominic Sarno to assure him that MGM stands fully committed to the Springfield project and that the project will get completed as per the September 2018 deadline.

Hornbuckle also confirmed that MGM has already poured in $250 million out of the proposed $800 million budget and it would in no way back down from its commitment to Springfield. The president confirmed that 3000 construction jobs will be made available in due course of time and that the extra competition from Connecticut’s tribal casinos will not impact the Springfield casino in any way.