The sports-centric, adults-only Las Vegas resort just expanded. By Ryan Slattery
Not unlike how Steve Wynn is credited with introducing more service-oriented megaresorts that focused less on gambling — and more on luxury, free attractions, entertainment and dining on the Las Vegas Strip — casino mogul Derek Stevens is doing
the same in downtown Las Vegas.
Only Stevens, a hardcore sports nut, ripped up the game plan and orchestrated his own play. Stevens zeroed in on emphasizing
the sports book, on long, video-poker gambling bars that show sporting events day and night, and a pool complex so cool it has year-round pull attracting thousands of sports fans — Stadium Swim.
But before we do a deep dive into how Circa Las Vegas became the jewel of Downtown and the sporting aspects that made it that way, let’s look back at how this Downtown revitalization started. It’s not an exaggeration to say that downtown Las Vegas was a bit
down on its luck when Stevens arrived to help salvage it and grow it into a destination upon itself.
In 2008, Stevens and brother Greg purchased the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino—the oldest and (with just north of 100 rooms) the smallest hotel on the Fremont Street Experience. That same year, Stevens bought the Las Vegas 51s Triple-A minor league baseball team (now the Las Vegas Aviators), which he owned from 2008 to 2013.
But Stevens made a bigger move in 2011 when he purchased Fitzgeralds, renovated it and renamed it The D Las Vegas — both a nod to his nickname and his hometown of Detroit. He then added the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center to host concerts, events and NHL watch parties.
Next up, Las Vegas had to say goodbye to the deep-fried Twinkies sold at the Mermaids Casino. Stevens scooped it up along with the Las Vegas Club, to tear them down and build his crown jewel. That would be Circa Las Vegas, which opened in October 2020. It was the first new hotel-casino to be built downtown in four decades and, when it was finished, it was the tallest, topping out at 458 feet.
But with Circa, Stevens kept the vintage Vegas vibe — even restoring the old Vegas Vickie kicking-cowgirl sign, giving her a prominent home in the center of the casino with her very own lounge. But Stevens modernized that vibe and made Circa an adults-only resort, allowing only guests over 21 years of age inside.
Circa was a game-changer downtown. It signalled that old Vegas was back in a big way. It was new again. But unlike what was happening on the Strip, Stevens knew Circa needed a new direction, a motivator that would draw people to the property. Sports was his answer.
Stevens even joked at the opening that Circa was really just “a sports book so big [that] we built a casino around it” and promised it would be “unlike anything sports fans had ever seen.” Hyperbole be damned, it’s lived up to the boast. With the massive sports book and Stadium Swim, Stevens created two of the most unique spots to watch live sporting events in Las Vegas.
The three-level sports book has private boxes, stadium seating for up to 1,000 guests, and includes an Overhang Bar, modelled after old Tiger Stadium’s right-field wall. Downstairs, fans can catch the action the action at the 165-foot-long Mega Bar or head outside to the Stadium Swim pool complex.
Stadium Swim is a tiered, six-pool amphitheatre facing a 40-foot-tall, 143-foot-wide screen. With temperature-controlled heated pools, it is open year-round so fans won’t miss an NFL playoff game in January or any Vegas Golden Knights action. Stadium Swim has been a success, to put it mildly. On a recent tour, Stevens said that on busy weekends more than 5,000 people will visit the venue. “Far more people visit Stadium Swim than stay in our hotel,” he admits.
That was a deciding factor for expansion. Just recently, in late October, nearly four years to the day of its opening, Circa unveiled a $22 million augmentation that added 106 new rooms and suites, increasing the room inventory by 20 percent and taking it to a new total of 618 rooms.
“Demand’s been great,” Stevens says “When we opened four years ago, we always knew there would be a substantial demand for high-quality hotel rooms in downtown Las Vegas. The amazing thing about our hotel is it’s been sold out every single weekend for the past four years. We’re in a good spot Downtown right now. There is incredible demand.”
Stevens points out that downtown Las Vegas has just 6,000 hotel rooms, meaning annual stays max out at around two million. Yet 25 million people visit Downtown each year and don’t have the opportunity to stay there, meaning “more hotel rooms are warranted.
“We’re really excited because the risk of adding new rooms is pretty limited to me, because we’re selling out all the time,” he adds. “This will give more people the opportunity to experience the energy of Downtown.”
Stevens has done his part to cheerlead Downtown. He’s brought in concerts, hosted watch parties for sporting events and launched pro-football betting contests with prizes that guarantee winners millions of dollars. His Circa Sports chain of sports books have given gamblers an easy way to bet on college or professional sports through the use of a downloaded app on their phone. Now, sports bettors in Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa and Kentucky — where Circa Sports operates—can set up an account and bet right from their phone.
But his latest effort is the Neon City Festival — ironically a sports alternative. It’s a partnership Stevens founded with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. Basically, it is a free festival without fences that will take place the same weekend as the Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula One race (November 22–24). It will include entertainment with performances from Neon Trees, EDM artists Seven Lions, and Alison Wonderland and Country singer Russell Dickerson, among others. It’s meant to be alternative for non-race fans that will also include local bands, artists and food trucks.
“We just thought year two could be better,” Stevens says as he talks about how the race wasn’t exactly a big draw or success for Downtown businesses. “The Neon City Festival doesn’t compete with F1. It complements it. There is really nothing that can fill all of Las Vegas. This is such a massive hotel-room city. It’s really just another event in town that weekend to give people more options.”
Of the 106 new rooms, Circa added 72 standard rooms it calls Single Kings.
There are also more than 24 Single King Premium or Double King rooms and four 1,187-square-foot Panoramic Sunset Suites — these premium suites come with a living room, a bar, dining table and built-in Inova beds, which can be pulled down from the wall to add an extra bed. Stevens also found many guests requesting connecting rooms, so he added more than a dozen of those as well.
Guests staying at Circa will notice that every room is furnished with a king-size bed, outfitted with a refrigerator and have ceilings eight inches taller than the average Vegas hotel. This allows for shower heads to be several inches higher on the wall.
“People are a lot taller than what they were 50 years ago,” Stevens quips
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