Atlantic City … Past, Present and Future
By HARRY HURLEY Political Columnist
The Hurley Line:
With more twists and turns then an Agatha Christie mystery novel, Atlantic City continues to take the necessary strides towards fiscal solvency. Its reinvention as a vibrant, world-class destination resort is presently on a solid footing.
As we approach Summer, 2019, it’s undoubtedly one of the most critical summer seasons in more than 40 years for Atlantic City.
The present and future is bright. It is a time of rebirth for Atlantic City. This has happened many times in the past.
When the next Chapter of Atlantic City plays out, the doomsayers will once again be wrong in their assessment. In The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Antonio says, “What’s past is prologue.”
And, so it is with Atlantic City. 30 million visitors come to Atlantic City each year. That’s more people than visit Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; the supposed Happiest Place on Earth.
Since 1853, each and every time Atlantic City has been counted out; She rallies back, to become bigger, stronger and fresher.
The first train service directly linked Atlantic City by the sea to Philadelphia and 500,000 people a year rushed to Atlantic City in the early years, when the city was first developed as a health resort. The first train brought passengers to Atlantic City’s “The United States Hotel,” then the largest hotel in America.
Next, the first boardwalk in America was built, initially to keep the beach sand out of the grand hotel lobbies. It evolved into one of the greatest marketing and tourist attractions in the history of the world.
Atlantic City’s early peak came during the 1920’s Prohibition era. Illegal booze and illegal gambling flowed freely. It was then that the city proclaimed itself as The World’s Playground, which are the call letters (WPG) for the radio station that I have broadcasted daily from for the past 27 years.
In May, 1929, Nucky Johnson brazenly hosted a conference in Atlantic City for organized crime figures. Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Johnny “The Fox” Torrio, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and many other gangsters attended.
Doctors regularly prescribed moving to Atlantic City, with the belief that the salt water air was therapeutic and even medicinal. It’s the very reason why my Father moved to Atlantic City following his honorable service in World War II.
After World War II, poverty, crime, political corruption and economic decline hit Atlantic City hard. It lasted from the mid-to-late 20th Century.
The forecast was that President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 Democratic National Convention was going to save Atlantic City. Instead, it was an abject failure and an economic disaster for Atlantic City; that would be deeply felt until legalized casino gambling was approved in 1976.
At what would have been President Kennedy’s Convention, instead became Johnson’s … The media was placed in substandard rooms, (they weren’t even provided cotton linen), they were given paper towels as bathroom linen; relegating the national media, who would ultimately serve as Atlantic City’s judge, jury and executioners. After receiving their second or third class status, the media responded in-kind by trashing Atlantic City nationwide.
It took 12 years and another miracle for Atlantic City to emerge from a near economic depression.
Atlantic City continued in its downward spiral until 1976, when a ballot referendum question was approved by the voters of New Jersey, to legalize gaming in Atlantic City-only. It led to a rebirth of The World’s Playground, and, more than 30 years of unbridled, recession-proof, robust prosperity followed.
With my former boss Donald Trump leading the way, Atlantic City also became the boxing capital of America, and, Atlantic City grew to a $ 5.2 billion dollar annual casino Mecca. It now stands at more than $ 3 billion per-year; still floating between the 2nd or 3rd largest casino gaming market in the world.
In the last full year (2018) on record, Atlantic City’s 9 casinos achieved a 9.2 percent increase year-on-year aggregated gross gaming revenue ($ 2.9 billion). Atlantic City also added another $ 100 million in the newly legalized sports betting in 2018.
Fast forward now four decades, the immense gaming competition had necessitated the closure of four casinos. Two have since reopened. In recent years, Atlantic City’s ratable base has plunged from $ 22 billion to $ 7 billion annually.
Providing the basic services for taxpayers became an enormous problem and the state has been forced to provide subsidies to keep Atlantic City afloat. A heavy-handed state takeover of Atlantic City is still in place.
As grave as these challenges appear, to those who have always counted Atlantic City out, they have once again been proven wrong. Atlantic City successfully emerged from a Great Recession.
There is now a lot of positive talk about Atlantic City.
Former Mayor Don Guardian was so confident about Atlantic City’s progress that he invited Television Talk Show Host Wendy Williams to tour parts of Atlantic City with him.
It was just a few short years earlier, on national television that Williams trashed Atlantic City at length, calling it “a dump, with chicken bones and tampons all over the beach.” It wasn’t true, but, it was a devastating attack from someone with a national microphone.
If cleanliness is next to Godliness, then Guardian actually gets it. He took trash collection service in Atlantic City from once-per-week to several times per-day.
Many of the roads in Atlantic City were in very bad shape, especially Pacific Avenue, the ultimate main thoroughfare to the Atlantic City Casinos. All roads were completely resurfaced a few years ago.
Mayor Guardian declared Atlantic City to be, “The Entertainment Capital of the Jersey Shore.”
Taking a page out of the Las Vegas playbook, Atlantic City is looking to capitalize on and maximize non-gaming revenue opportunities. Las Vegas generates more revenue non-gaming vs. gaming. Atlantic City is there yet, but, improving each year.
Atlantic City stages major iconic summer beach concerts, The Atlantic City Airshow, which is the largest midweek airshow in America. The Airshow draws hundreds of thousands of people. The beach concerts regularly draw more than 100,000 people each.
Even during a time of great fiscal contraction, Atlantic City is reinvesting in itself. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to reinvest in our existing hotel casino properties.
Stockton University is also a huge part of the current Atlantic City story. They spent more than 10 years trying to bring a viable Stockton campus to Atlantic City. That era is here and it has been a major success story. Atlantic City is now also a “College Town.”
Dr. Harvey Kesselman is Stockton University’s President & Chief Executive Officer. Kesselman is long-known for his intellectual honesty, extraordinary executive and people skills, and, he possesses a steady hand and an excellent temperament.
Working closely with the Stockton Board of Trustees, the day Dr. Kesselman was named President he established two Task Forces to address the University’s most pressing issues: Atlantic City Initiatives and Shared Governance.
Stockton’s designation as a university came at a time when the institution was once again experiencing record-breaking enrollment, which continues to this day.
With The Atlantic City Casinos (again) delivering improved economic results, Stockton University, South Jersey Gas expansion and many other non-gaming investments that are currently taking place in Atlantic City, the future remains very bright.
MEET AC which is the equivalent of Atlantic City’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, continues to deliver a record number of conventions and meetings each and every year.
Jim Wood, MEET AC President & Chief Executive Officer and his team has taken this vibrant agency to new heights of achievement. He has great instincts in developing his game plan to properly market Atlantic City to meeting planners and other strategic partners.
Atlantic City is now a mature destination resort that is able to successfully compete with all other major jurisdictions for attracting business.
Atlantic City hotels, casinos, meeting space, guest service level, and food and beverage outlets are competitive with any market in the world.
As we have all witnessed together, past is prologue.
Harry Hurley is the president of Harry Hurley Consulting and Communications, LLC. He hosts the daily talk radio program “Hurley in the Morning” 6-10 a.m., weekdays on Townsquare Media, WPG Talk Radio 104.1 FM & 1450 AM, where he also serves as the senior programming consultant. Harry was elected to both the Philadelphia (2013) and New Jersey (2015) Radio Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Harry Hurley has also been selected (2015-2018) as one of the Top 100 Most Important Talk Radio Hosts in America by Talkers Magazine. Hurley is the inaugural recipient of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association “Broadcaster of the Year” (2019). Hurley is also performing national fill-in, on-air talent work for FOX News Radio on their nationally syndicated platforms. He has hosted various programs for local television and is the editor and publisher of his news and information website,www.harryhurley.com. Send comments to HarryHurley@aol.com
