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    CHRONO SPORTS
    		•
    		Monday, June 30, 1997

    Fight fallout could hurt Las Vegas

     LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Mike Tyson not only bit Evander Holyfield's ears, but the city's image as well.
     "This is a temporary black eye that will heal," Harry Curtis, a gaming analyst for Smith-Barney, said Monday.
     Saturday night's bizarre fight was stopped when Tyson bit Holyfield on both ears in the third round.
     After that, thousands of frightened fans and guests fled the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino amid reports of shots fired near the entrance of the resort. Hotel officials later said there were no shots and the guests heard a champagne bottle breaking and iron barricades being knocked to the concrete at the hotel entrance.
     Police said they found no evidence of any shots fired.
     Some 45 people sustained minor injuries during the melee, according to MGM Grand officials and Mercy Medical Services, the city's ambulance company.
     The chaos was filmed by news crews on hand for the fight, and reported by writers covering the event.
     "Obviously, it's not good for the town," Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said Monday.
     "Obviously these ae not visual images of Las Vegas that we like to see being broadcast around the country."
     Jason Ader, a gaming analyst for Bear Stearns, said Las Vegas has to "win back" its credibility.
     "I think it will, but there has been some short term damage, some perception damage," Ader said.
     "I think this is way beyond what anyone could estimate for a worst-case scenario for a fight. I think in time it (the city's image) will be repaired."
     Ader said some gaming operators were disappointed with the fight weekend.
     "Big fights like this usually have the impact of a New Year's Eve," Ader said. "This didn't live up to those expectations."
     Alan Feldman, a spokesman for Mirage Resorts Inc., disagreed.
     "Although the fight was a bizarre disappointment, business was great," he said, referring to the company's three Las Vegas hotel-casinos. "We had a very, very strong weekend. Virtually all of our best players were in."
     MGM Grand spokesman Bill Doak declined Monday to discuss how the fight furor and subsequent melee affected business at the 5,005-room resort.
     Doak also declined to release any damage estimate from the disturbance.
     Ader said hotels were hoping for an economic lift from the fight.
     "June was an awful month in terms of hotel and gaming revenues," Ader said. "Hotel revenues were down 5 to 15 percent and gaming revenues were down 1 to 6 percent. Everyone was hopeful the weekend would turn business around and provide a shot in the arm, and obviously that wasn't the case."
     Ader called the public relations fallout from the fight "a temporary thing."


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