Atlantic City’s Fading Boxing Scene: Trump Taj Majal Hotel Casino Goes Broke and Will Close in November 2014
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Atlantic City, NJ (September 9th, 2014)– Revel, Showboat, Trump Plaza, ACH Hilton and now the Taj Mahal. Sad to say it, the Trump Taj Mahal will be the fifth Atlantic City Hotel and casino which has hosted boxing events to fold. The Trump Taj Mahal is expected to close in November 2014. When it does, the loss of the five hotel casinos will have cost locals over ten thousand jobs, which cannot be replaced in the state of New Jersey. It remains to be seem if any of the five will be allowed to reopen as nongaming institutions.
Trump Entertainment Resorts has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Wilmington, Delaware. It previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. Financier Donald Trump has filed suit seeking to get his name removed from the Trump Plaza (which closes next week) and the Trump Taj Mahal, as the closings of the hotel casinos damage his name and brand.
This reporter, his parents and his aunt, were present opening weekend at the Taj Mahal opening in April 1990. It was, in its time, a place of style, luxury, gaming action and entertainment. Competition from other gaming venues in other cities and towns in geographical vicinity doomed Atlantic City in part, as its hotel casinos did not upgrade to the level required to maintain client interest in the current moment. Ironically, the closing of the five Atlantic City hotel casinos will probably help the surviving casinos survive in the long run. The Tropicana, Ballys/Caesar’s, Resorts, Harrah’s Borgata and Golden Nugget seem to do doing well in Atlantic City, as do smaller hotels like The Chelsea, The Claridge, Baymont Suites, The Sheraton, and other small nongaming hotels.
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