Q+A: Stephen Thayer:

New Strat boss has high hopes for property’s new vibe, north Strip

Tom Donoghue / DonoghuePhotography.com

An aerial view of the Strat, the iconic Las Vegas resort owned by Golden Entertainment.

As a longtime executive in the gaming and hospitality industries, Stephen Thayer knows change is a constant.

That’s more true than ever these days at the Strat — traditionally known for its SkyPod amenities more than 1,100 feet in the air and its rides — as the property continues to reinvent itself in the midst of a renaissance of sorts in the area just north of the Strip.

A former Caesars executive with about three decades of experience in hospitality and gaming, Thayer was hired recently by Golden Entertainment to be vice president and general manager of the property. Golden took over ownership of the Strat in 2017.

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Stephen Thayer

Thayer sat down recently to talk to the Sun about his new role, a nearly complete renovation project that is pumping about $110 million into the property, and his thoughts on moving back to Las Vegas from the East Coast.

How’s the new job going?

So far, so good. Even though I wasn’t here when (the renovation project) started, it’s exciting to see what they’ve done and the vision of the future. We’ll finish renovating the south end of the casino floor this year. Next year, we’ll do a little more on the north side and we’re going to continue to renovate rooms, including possibly adding some additional elevated rooms. We’re constantly evaluating the product that we have out on the floor to find what works and what doesn’t.

You started your career in the late 1980s at the old Sands Atlantic City and jumped back and forth between Atlantic City and Las Vegas a bit while working for Caesars. Talk about your career and what led you to your current job.

After about five years at the Sands, I got out of gaming and went to work for Wyndham International for about 10 years doing true hospitality on the hotel side. About 15 years ago, I wanted to get back into gaming and ended up joining on with Caesars Entertainment and worked at Rio and Caesars Palace. I was then asked to go to Atlantic City, where I was for seven years working at all four Caesars properties there.

I wanted to come back to Las Vegas for a couple of reasons. First, Atlantic City is a difficult market right now. They have a lot of decisions to make as an industry and as a city. I felt like there were some unanswered questions there. Plus, I loved living here in Las Vegas and my daughter is a senior in high school, so there was less to keep us (in Atlantic City). It was time for us to come back West.

Along with all the money being spent to spruce up the Strat — including a new sports book, stage lounge, and a soon-to-be redone south-facing foyer — there are a lot of projects happening just south of the Strat. How exciting is it to be so close to projects like Resorts World, the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion and what Phil Ruffin has talked about near Circus Circus?

We think there are more exciting things happening now on the north end than down in center Strip. There’s a lot to bring people up to this end now, and that wasn’t the case for a long time. We believe Resorts World and projects like that are very beneficial to us. Those are going to help bring people down to this side.

We believe that the work we’re doing on the Strat, it couldn’t be happening at a better time. There’s a lot of excitement. We believe that if we can show the commitment of Golden Entertainment to the property and to the community, we’re going to give people a reason to come back to the Strat other than just the rides and the restaurant at the top that goes in a circle. There’s more to this property. We like to call it stickiness. People are starting to stick around now. People are seeing that it’s more inviting and welcoming.

What do you think your biggest challenge will be in this new role?

The millennial question is one that’s always on everybody’s mind. With some of the things we’re doing, that piece will take care of itself, I think. We’re creating more pods and more experiences in our casino and we’ve put a lot of thought into that. We’ll have more coming down the road.

For the Strat and for this north side in general, we need to get past this stigma that exists. You talk to a lot of people, they’ll say, "Oh, I was there 10 years ago and I haven’t stopped back since." We need to get that customer to come back because they’re going to see something completely different. That’s a big piece. People are fickle with their money, too, so we need to have the service levels and environment where people want to stay.

You worked for Caesars, a giant company, but what has it been like so far working for Golden Entertainment?

I love it. These are people who have a vision for where they want to go. I loved working for Caesars Entertainment, too, but, at times, they were a little slow in how they moved. When you have a big ship like that, it can be very difficult to change direction or implement new processes that can help the business. It can be a struggle at times. It can be a struggle anywhere, but, in this environment at Golden, we can react very quickly. We don’t have to wait to have corporate take a look. It’s been a great experience so far.

Gaming

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