MGM Grand Las Vegas
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The MGM Grand Las Vegas opened in 1993 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. 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.
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. During that time, the Marina was known as the MGM-Marina Hotel.
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 extended and became the Las Vegas Monorail. The station was refurbished and the trains were replaced with Bombardier M-VI's.
External links
- MGM Grand Offical site and source for some information used (http://www.mgmgrand.com/)
- Las Vegas Travelog (http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/las_vegas/mgm.html) - includes about 15 photos of MGM Grandde:MGM Grand Hotel