Macau’s most ambitious theatrical venture, the US$250m Franco Dragone-directed House of Dancing Water, will open on September 16, Lawrence Ho announced yesterday at the first-birthday celebrations for City of Dreams.
Analysis: COD needs to get the rest of the property open. Its marketing team does a great job, as does Greg Hawkins’ management team: there is noticeably more joie de vivre in the place now compared to when it opened. But it still has plenty of dead spaces and needs more attractions for the mass market. Dragone should help, though we don’t think it will be a runaway success simply because we don’t think the business model works in Macau. A Hard Rock cafe should help, even though they haven’t been a huge success elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong. A Club Cubic should help, even though we can’t see how they will fill a 20,000-sq-m venue every night. It all adds up, however, and getting more people through the place while giving them more to spend on has to ultimately help this property.
Used with permission & copyright to IntelMacau.com
City of Dreams is not hopeless. Their casino will be filled with people wanting gamble. As long as the PRC government allows its citizens to cross the border Macau will continue to grow. However, Dragone is destined to be a big flop. Not because it’s not any good but because there is no market in Macau for this type of entertainment. It’s sad too since Franco Dragone is a genius and he puts a lot of creativity, direction and love into his productions. 200M down the drain, Lawrence better start thinking of ways to recoup that money for his investors. I suspect that long ago he already realized what a mistake he had made in contracting Dragone but by the time he realized too much money and face had been expended to walk away from it.
Hi Ray, you’re correct. The sentiment across is the same.
Like the analyst said, “We wish COD the best of luck with this one. It’s a fantastic show indeed. But the cheapest ticket is also five times more expensive than the circus at Chimelong in Guangzhou, and we have seen no evidence so far that the kind of people who visit Macau are interested in seeing such a show when they could be spending HK$380 on three hands of baccarat instead. “