Caesars Entertainment has partnered with SL Green Realty in an effort to bid for a casino license in New York City (three were approved for the surrounding area in 2022). Their goal is to open a casino at 1515 Broadway – the middle of Times Square. While theatre industry leaders strongly oppose this proposal, the Coalition for a Better Times Square recently announced their support of the project. They even offered their ‘expertise’ on the current state of Broadway and their supposed statistical acumen to bolster their pro-casino argument.
They noted the recent winter closings of several Broadway shows as a sign that Broadway is in trouble, and argued that the addition of a casino to Times Square could add 412,000 additional admissions and $65 million in revenue to Broadway each year. Do these numbers make sense? Is this even a significant amount to add to Broadway’s annual totals? Does the average paid admission calculated from this ‘estimate’ jibe with comparable industry numbers? Are the shows that closed in January really the bad omen the Coalition implies? Do they know what a ‘limited run’ is? Probably not. More to come on these uninformed numbers and declarations.
This article will be expanded into a longer piece in the future.
Michael Abourizk spent eight years managing the content of the Internet Broadway Database as well as statistics for the Broadway industry as Senior Manager of Research at The Broadway League. He holds a degree in Dramatic Literature and Theatre History from New York University.