The Casino File
By Chuck Darrow
While entertainment is, to one degree or another, a standard part of most casinos’ marketing strategies, only one gaming operation—Hard Rock International—bases its entire brand on show business.
Which is why the company’s local outpost, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City is, by most applicable metrics, the market leader in live presentations, from megastar headliners to party bands. And it’s why looking at The Rock’s 2025 entertainment blueprint seemed a logical endeavor for our first column of the brand-new year.
To that end, we recently sat down with Michael Woodside who, as vice-president of entertainment, oversees the gaming hall’s show business operations. While he understandably couldn’t dive too deeply into the weeds of specific future bookings (shows can’t be publicly announced until contracts are signed, sealed and delivered), he did outline his property’s goals and broad-stroke blueprints for 2025. For starters, Woodside made clear his objective is to reach as large an audience as possible.
“We want to make sure that we’ve got something for everyone,” he offered. “I think knowing where we’re located [means] we are catering to many different audiences: Folks from Philadelphia, folks from North Jersey, folks from New York. So, we have to make sure that we program [based on] what our audience base looks like.
“So, we will have classic rock [the genre upon which the worldwide Hard Rock brand was built], and we’ll have R&B, and we’ll have comedy. But we’ll also have jazz, and we’ll have some classical music coming up this year.
“I think Hard Rock often has this brand of being classic rock only. Like that’s what it feels like when you see the name Hard Rock. But the reality is we do have something for everyone of different ages and backgrounds and we want to make sure that we are very diverse in our programming.”
That “big-tent” blueprint is evident in the roster of headliners for whom tickets are currently on sale (at ticketmaster.com). The musical lineup is headed by classic-rock titan Rod Stewart (Feb. 22) and also showcases a three-night (Feb. 13-15) stand by jam-band favorites Widespread Panic; Motown legend Smokey Robinson (March 8); the operatic trio Il Volo (March 22) and singer-songwriters Melissa Ethridge and Joss Stone (April 18).
On the comedy side of the ledger, TV-and-movie star Martin Lawrence (Jan. 25) and Nikki Glaser (Feb. 1) are on the docket. And in case anyone thinks Woodside is merely throwing around the “D” word, Feb. 8 will see a performance by Indian duo Kumar Sanu and Sadhana Sargam, who’ll be celebrating the soundtracks of 1990s Bollywood films.
The above programs are set for the 7,000-seat Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena, but that’s only one part of the pleasure dome’s three-pronged entertainment strategy.
There are also the 1,300-capacity Sound Waves, and, for free performances, Lobby Bar, the lounge at Council Oak Steaks & Seafood and Hard Rock Café.
As for the former, Woodside acknowledged that the downshifting on bookings at Sound Waves that took root in 2024 will continue.
“Volume-wise, there might be a few less shows in the theater,” he said. “I think what happened this past summer is we had a lot of long-term runs that went for six, seven, eight shows. Sadly, there was some softness over the summer.
“But looking at 2025, we’re still going to be very aggressive in the amount of shows that we have [in Sound Waves] to make sure that, again, we’re listening to our audience and giving them programming that they want to consume. We’ll have shows every single weekend in the theater, but we might not have those midweek things that we had in there previously.”
So far, the Sound Wave bookings comprise an eclectic agenda that ranges from jam-banders Umphree’s McGee (Jan. 25) to The 3 Kings Ultimate Elvis Experience (Feb. 1) to a comedy game show for singles called “UpDating” (Feb. 14) to the venerable Chippendales dance troupe (July 11 and 12).
From the day in June, 2018 that Hard Rock opened its doors (after its transformation from Trump Taj Mahal Casino-Resort), the casino has been dedicated to presenting live entertainment in one form or another 365 days a year in Lobby Bar, Council Oak Lounge and Hard Rock Café (hence the “365 Live” branding). That policy, noted Woodside, remains a linchpin.
“We currently program seven days a week in Lobby Bar, with multiple bands on weekends. We’ve got multiple bands in Council Oak as well on the weekends. And we also do the Hard Rock Cafe. So, we have three ‘vibe’ stages for free live entertainment. Our commitment is that there’ll be some live entertainment here in this building seven days a week.”
Woodside also pledged Hard Rock will continue to be a major presenter of top-tier tribute bands.
“We’re very fortunate to see some of those tribute acts are now migrating up into the arena and they’re doing 3,700 capacity versus 1,300 capacity,” he offered. “A good example is [the May 3 appearance by Pink Floyd tribute] Brit Floyd.
“They’ve historically sold out Sound Waves well in advance every single year. And their [full] production is so large that we can put on a bigger show in the arena.”
Big deal at Borgata
If it’s the first week of the new year, it must be time for the Borgata Winter Poker Open, one of the East Coast’s biggest and most prestigious poker throwdowns.
Kicking off today and running through Jan. 17, the BWPO features 32 main events, 26 secondary competitions and a total guaranteed prize pool of $5 million.
Among the featured contests are the $600 buy-in Kick-Off contest that boasts $1 million in guaranteed prizes, the $1,250 Mirror Mystery Bounty tourney ($500,000 guaranteed) and the keystone event, the $3,500 Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship which guarantees $2 million in prize money.
For the real high-end poker aficionado, there is the $10,000 High Roller Experience, a two-day tournament whose amenities include a three-night hotel stay, welcome party at the Wine Bar, breakfast buffet, and table-side massage therapy.
For more info, go to borgata.mgmresorts.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
