Trump Taj Mahal closes after years of losses

[left-of-center2012]

The Trump Taj Mahal ... ceased operations Monday after hemorrhaging losses for years and negotiations with employees' union broke down ...

The shutdown, which leaves 3,000 employees out of work, was widely expected after its management announced the planned closure in August.
... the hotel lost "almost $350 million over just a few short years,"

The union, Unite Here Local 54, says many workers at the hotel "have seen only 80 cents per hour in total raises over the last twelve years" while the cost of living in Atlantic City has risen over 25% during the period.

The Trump Taj Mahal opened in 1990 after heavy debt financing and years of legal and financial maneuvers ...

When it opened, it was one of the largest casinos in the world ... and billed itself as "the eighth wonder of the world."

But the fancy billing belied numerous financial troubles it faced over the years, including multiple bankruptcy filings ...
The hotel emerged from its most recent bankruptcy in February

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/10/10/trump-taj-mahal-closes-after-years-losses/91845566/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Omen for election & Donald J tRump's brand biz after. All he's got is his brand & he trashed it. .nt

[smirkymonkey]

3. I want to see his brand and his empire crumble into ruins.

I want that man to be completely destroyed after this. I have no pity for that bastard.

[edhopper]

2. shouldnt this be front page news

?

[Jim Lane]

5. Only if Carl Icahn were running for President.

Icahn bought the property out of the bankruptcy and has been in charge ever since. I think Trump has been collecting a fee for the continued use of his name but that's it.

Icahn did put money into the property but said he couldn't continue to operate it, in light of the ongoing losses, without union givebacks. The union countered that it sought only the same terms as were in effect for workers at Icahn's other Atlantic City casino. Negotiations failed to produce a compromise. Trump was on the sidelines. He expressed the hope that an agreement would be reached but, to be fair to him, he had no power to make it happen.

[gratuitous]

6. The optics are undeniably bad, though

Trump's name is still on the operation.

[Jim Lane]

7. I agree, but bad optics doesn't equate to front-page news.

It's front-page news in Atlantic City, of course, but if you were a newspaper editor on the West Coast, would you give it that kind of play?

The media should get beyond this attitude of "the public interest is what interests the public." To their credit, their reports of the closing that I've seen have generally pointed out, somewhere down in the body of the story, that Trump no longer owns or runs the Taj.

[gratuitous]

8. Probably not nationwide play

But it will be fun to tweak the Nitwit Brigade with the wholly true statement that yet another casino with the Trump name on it has gone bust. I'm not above rubbing their rodent-like little faces in it.

[Major Nikon]

4. Trump hired the best advisers in the casino business at the time

Then he promptly ignored their advice and drove his casinos into the ground passing on those losses to his creditors, his shareholders, and his employees. At he time he was "all talk" about how his casino was going to be "Yuuuge".

This is exactly what will happen to America under a Trump presiduncy. He's already promised not just to make things better, but to "fix" literally every problem or what he perceives as a problem. His results speak for themselves.

[UTUSN]

9. Here's a Kick to go with my previous Rec. Note: R/s without K/s don't help the thread's sinking. n/t