Good morning We are calling to order meeting number 278 of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Thursday, September 26 2019 at 10 a.m. Here at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield We'll begin with item 2 Commissioner Stabbins, please on the approval of the minutes Sure. Good morning, Madam Chair I've moved the approval of the minutes from the September 12 2019 meeting is included in your packet Subject to correction for any typographical errors or any other non-material matters Do we have any edits or corrections? One was in connection with the Regency discussion There was a Sure, there was a discussion In particular where I had summarized some of the other bases for the Commission's decision back in 2016 The vote the proximity to the school that Sort of things which is not in the summary which should probably go in at the top of page 4 And then moving on to the IVs presentation about the switching jackpots at the conclusion I had specifically asked IV to coordinate with lottery about the 10 percenters and their approach to 10 percenters So I think both of those I would just like added into the minutes Okay, I Have a couple of other comments myself Page 5 where it says the motion passed for one it was actually 3-1 And On page 11, I think this summary the Plain Ridge Park casino license Renewal process I think captures that it was a summary, but My fellow commissioners will not object I would point out three things that were highlighted that I am also going to highlight today And that was that we studied other jurisdictions Then We We have Come with a presumption of relicensing that we're not doing any kind of The novel solicitation But that it's also finally an opportunity to review all the commitments that they have made as part of this Relicensing any other edits or Suggested changes. They're very comprehensive. So thank you to Shara in our legal apartment Do we have a second with those amended amendments? I second that. Thank you Those in favor Opposed May the record reflect that commissioner Cameron was not present so it would be 4-0 with one abstention. Thank you Moving on to our item number 3 our minister of update Commissioners So on item a I actually don't have that much last week at the last meeting. I'm sorry two weeks ago I told you about some open positions We are working to fill those and do background checks. So hiring is going along at the appropriate tempo I do an item B have some rather large shoes to fill mr. Curtis couldn't make it out here today So I will be substituting for him on an amendment to MGM's gaming beverage license Here with me to answer any questions you might have after I give a brief rundown Assistant and vice president and legal counsel and an the carer to Zolo vice president hospitality so And chair I think you and I actually saw the proposed area last week when we aren't here in Springfield Commissioners you may know that MGM has decided to use the former Starbucks space as a VIP lounge and as part of that they are asking today to have permission to Serve alcohol beverages to their VIP customers As I understand it, they're not going to have a separate bar in that location It will actually be bar service from a service bar that goes into that location But it's closed off and there'll be separate beverage service there So that's the reason for the amendment to the gaming beverage license Identifying the VIP lounge as a separate service area, which seems appropriate to me because if If there were issues there we then could take action on that portion of the license and again I'm not anticipating that but I think that is part of the ration out So I don't know Satharanthi if there's anything you want to add to that. I think you fairly summarized it. I Just have one out of curiosity You see that Would would be ever be restricted to only a certain number of people? You have to present some kind of Card or or status rewards card to be able to getting that right the door will be locked at all times 24 hours a day you it's restricted access only to our high-end guests who will be issued a separate RFID card Into the space It's highly restricted And our miners allowed in that area if somebody comes with their family And so the drinks will be brought in by your Cocktail staff correct. We will have three VIP attendants that will be servicing the food and also servicing the alcohol service during the week when there's when it's not attended I'm a cocktail server from the lobby bar will be serving the beverages and the out the hours will be restricted to There won't be service between two and four correct. That is correct And and those VIP attendants who will be serving the alcohol will be Licensed at the appropriate level and sufficiently trained We haven't we haven't hired those folks who are signed them yet correct, but if they're not already Trained in license of the appropriate level then we would ensure that they are From a tips and a and a gaming license standpoint So this is something we would need a vote on and this is a Need that it's been requested by your patrons That that is correct. The are we did some surveys right in the beginning And this came up quite a bit because our competitors in Connecticut offer these services Any further questions you do need to vote on this I do please any further questions for Anthony or Great Do I have a motion? Madam chair and move the commission approve the amendment to the gaming beverage license issue to blue tarp RE development LLC DBA MGM Springfield is described in the memorandum from Bill Curtis our licensing manager dated September 30 Sorry, September 23rd 2019 and the amended gaming beverage license application both included in this September 26 2019 Commission packet second that Further discussion all those in favor aye Opposed 5-0. Thank you. Thank you commissioners. That's all I have. I will now be taking a shortly backseat So mr. Ziemba could take over great. Thank you executive director Item number four on Bedsman Ziemba and we're looking forward to the MGM's quarterly report Thank You madam chair and commissioner as I'm joined here by Joe Delaney construction project oversight manager We have a number of items on today's agenda first MGM Springfield is here to present its quarterly report for the second quarter of this year Ending on June 30th MGM Springfield will also provide the commission with the review of the one-year anniversary of its opening Following MGM Springfield's presentation We'll hear a brief status update of Springfield's economic development activities and successes from Tim Sheehan Springfield's chief development officer and then later on today We will begin the commission's preparations for next year's community mitigation fund Now I turn back to MGM Springfield's quarterly report In addition to a discussion of MGM Springfield's second quarter activities and upcoming plans We have asked MGM Springfield to give the commission as much detail as it can regarding the status of its residential requirement As you're aware the commission has regularly reviewed the status of this commitment to provide 54 units of Market rate housing within one half mile of the casino at its commission meetings Over this year the commission authorized an extension to comply with this residential requirement Provided that MGM Springfield shall continue to inform the commission of any material event that would significantly alter the potential of MGM Springfield proceeding with the city's plan to rehabilitate 31 Elm Street in Springfield with the assistance provided by MGM Springfield Further the commission required that staff shall remain in regular contact with MGM Springfield and the city of Springfield to monitor the progress of the 31 Elm Street project its documentation and its schedule and report back to the commission at an appropriate time I can report that staff has continued to monitor the progress of this project and that MGM has not reported any Material event that would significantly impact its commitment to moving forward with that Let me turn it over to Mike Mathis CEO and president of MGM Springfield to introduce his team and to begin the presentation. Thank you Good morning, madam chair commissioners. Good morning. Welcome to Springfield. Thank you John Very excited to report our Q2 which Also involves some updates around our our anniversary which is obviously a Q3 event But difficult to be here today and not talk about some of the exciting things that happened on our one-year mark So I'll introduce the team as each of them comes up to present their their individual parts First I'm gonna start with a video that we we showed at our One-year anniversary out in the plaza and gives you a sense of some of the things that some of the images and events that happened throughout the first year I think this has audio right? I was on the ground when when it was just a Bag of an envelope and a pencil scratch.  This is a city that leads the way in Economic revitalization Creating a model for others to follow and we want to be a part of that And as we have been a part of this history and the milestones that we have admired We wanted to create a few new traditions for Springfield Wanted to offer a few words of congratulations to the MGM team and team Springfield I cannot believe a whole year has gone by four seasons of Great offerings and not only to the people of Springfield and this Commonwealth But to so many that have come to really appreciate and see all the great opportunities at MGM Springfield in case you hear Murphy's boxing dropkick Murphy's I want to wish MGM Springfield a happy one-year anniversary Thanks for being so good to us. We'll be back September 20th dropkick Murphy's playing across the street at the mass mutual Don Tom Springfield. We love you guys. See you soon. Happy anniversary. Hey, I'm Jim Springfield Aaron Lewis here Congratulations on a first successful year and happy birthday Happy anniversary MGM Springfield. I played you This is Sean What's up, y'all, it's low-cash here and we are live at MGM live MGM Springfield. It's their one-year anniversary Congratulations, we've had a blast here all day. We started drinking early because it's your one-year anniversary This is amazing. Thank you MGM Springfield for such a great year We're glad to be a part of it and happy birthday. Hey, cheers. Cheers to you As you can see we had a lot of fun with that, but we had a number of entertainers come through and it's part of our wonderful campaign to celebrate our first year, so Kudos to the team for for all that activation So just a few a few highlights Obviously entertainment is a large part of our commitment to the city and this is just a sample of both Headliners as well as our roar comedy show is our way to activate the armory building and then Boxing and we partner with Ken Casey and Murphy boxing. He's he's been a great partner And it's really part of bridging that gap between Western mass and Eastern mass bringing bringing a partner like that Out from Boston and we're gonna do continue to do more boxing some of which highlights local talent By the way, we've got a we've got a great couple of boxes that are local talents undefeated that have joined the Murphy boxing Promotional group Mike, where is where do you normally take the the boxing takes place? Yeah, I think at this point we've done it in two different locations one up in our ballroom Which seats about a thousand or so folks and then We then the second time we took it down to our plaza and did outdoor boxing Which for anybody that remembers the the Atlantic City days or Las Vegas days they used to do in this in the Caesars outdoor You know plaza and really a special experience having outdoor boxing, so Very exciting. We're gonna renew with him and do it again in 2020 Again, this is the images are from our outdoor plaza and Really an important part of our activation Bringing the community into our outdoor space and celebrating that beautiful backdrop that is the armory so we're we're actually in in Pre-planning to start installing the skinning rink so talk about the four seasons. It's quickly upon us But I'm looking forward to that outdoor program as well And we just conclude our MGM live series, which is a series of outdoor concerts again We're gonna renew that for next year as well was extremely popular You know this is the next image is just some of our other activations around the property and frankly some of the new things We run a campaign called you said it we did it and as part of us telling our customers that we're hearing their feedback and that we're Modifying our program to address their feedback one of things that our customers wanted for example was more Breakfast options on the weekends particularly So we turned on our Cal Mari brunch, which has been incredibly popular and it's something that we're gonna continue to do We people wanted more more bar space for video poker We built the casino bar in the mass mutual corner. It's great space. We actually opened it for the First Aerosmith show and what it did for us is really take what felt like the back of the property and Activated and turn it into yet another front door for us So a lot of activation back there and it's really proven to be very popular We sold one of our twenty six thousand dollar Indian sidecar cocktails You can either think of it as an expensive cocktail that comes with a motorcycle I think our ultimate customer thought it is that a motorcycle that came with a cocktail but that was in our Commonwealth and one of our really great customers we shipped it down to him and He really is a avid Indian motorcycle rider So there's a lot of fun to be able to say we sold one of those and then food truck Friday has been incredibly popular We just conclude our last one of those but It involves two or three of our own trucks and then we invite trucks from the community So a great way to celebrate, you know, we're hoping it turns into ditch Fridays And people end up staying there and really enjoying the outdoor space on a lazy summer Friday You know this next image is about some of our activation in Boston Really, you know part of being part of the MGM resource family is having the ability to take on a huge Partner like the Boston Red Sox. We are now on the Green Monster that iconic spot It obviously provides us national exposure not just Exposure in Springfield and what's really great about that activation is that not only are we able to bring customers out to Our luxury suite that are from Massachusetts to celebrate but also encourages cross marketing. So anytime we have a Visitor team that is based in one of our sister properties We're able to bring those great customers out here They spend time in Springfield and then we bring them to the game So really importing play and bringing new customers from outside the market is a big part of what we're trying to Continue to do and that's what that partnership allows The other piece of that partnership is we are reclaiming The Red Sox offseason fan fest third week of January. It was with one of our competitors. They now have brought it to Springfield 6,800 7,000 rabid Red Sox fans are gonna descend on downtown Springfield and we can't wait to welcome them And it's it's more people than than we can house in our own resort so they're gonna spill out into the downtown into other venues and Very excited to host them and see the impact that they'll have on the city and then to really Have people see downtown Springfield. They haven't been here ever or it haven't been here in a while It's really a great opportunity a Couple other things that we've tried the image to the top right is our stadium gaming is really the next evolution of gaming And it really has been incredibly successful We're not the first to do it in the industry but we're certainly one of the first in this in this in this region and One of the aspects of it and you're in the your gaming commission staff have been great because this is new technology It made sure that it met all the strict standards of the regulations, but essentially what it is is it's Dealer assisted electronic gaming you have live gaming up front and you can think of it as a 24 seat a roulette table or a 24 seat Blackjack table the action is projected up on the screens But individually you can make your bets on on on this on the individual Kiosk so what is what is very good for our people that are new to the new to gaming and are a little intimidated by a live gaming environment They don't know how to do the bets necessarily the computer will give you the automatic bets for you Do the payouts you're able to play multiple games It's been really well received and one of the things we're able to do because the labor Obviously is more efficient is we're able to give lower table limits At different periods of the day and that's something our customers have been asking for is a lower table limits So that they some of the entry-level players can can have time on the on the device Does the device what I like about the idea is that if I come with My wife or spouse or friends or whatever and not everybody wants to play blackjack They can sit next to me while I'm playing blackjack and they play roulette or baccarat or anything else So you're not moving back and forth between Tables I mean is that part of the strategy? Yeah, that's exactly right We you have the opportunity to play blackjack baccarat and roulette on a single kiosk and to your point You can be playing next to somebody whether it's part of your group or a stranger playing two different games all based on the live action that's up up front The we plan to expand that expand that product has been extremely popular and Then you know our line run bus service has been growing has been very successful and it's something that will continue to operate These are just a few images from our Our grand opening celebration.  It was a really great day and One of the images I really like is to the bottom right that gentleman's name between myself and Jimmer and his name is Mike Davis He's a Table games floor supervisor. We were running a promotion the entire year for any of our employees that had perfect attendance we're entered into a raffle to win a car and Mike was the lucky winner. I think we had over Mary Kate 200 Individuals that were eligible, which is pretty remarkable Given the tough hours that a lot of these folks work the best as we invited we wanted it to be a surprise for Mike He had just worked a Friday night into Saturday morning 4 a.m. Shift We told him that we needed him for a volunteer service and to his credit, you know It would have been awkward if he would have told us to pounce and but to his credit he came out and Was there to help, you know, support the support the event and then we called him up to the stage and gave him a Beautiful high-end a car. So really great deserving member of the team, but so many of our folks are that or that quality Can I tell one week story about that program as part of the program? Mike invited me to announce the name of them of the employee that was a winner He was going to whisper his name in my ear and I would announce it I didn't know the name of the person and when he said Mike Davis for a minute I thought for a second. I thought you meant Mike Mathis. I couldn't be right. I Have had perfect attendance. I was I do you would be perfect attendance No, that's great. Did you give him a day off to we did actually we sent him home They announced is they also pay the taxes on the Right on the car. Yeah, we go so that he does not have to pay those taxes. It was really a well Well done. And he's a downtown Springfield resident, which made it made it all the better. So Just some more images from from the anniversary and just a lot of fun engagement and a lot of the community came out to celebrate with us Which was really really quite touching This is some some images from the Aerosmith concert we had four shows In downtown Springfield all sold out So, you know over 20,000 folks came down downtown many of them hadn't been here for quite some time I think Aerosmith hadn't played downtown Springfield for 30 years I got a chance to meet the band and meet Steve Tyler and so gracious so excited and he talked about all the other things That we're doing downtown at 71 72 years old incredibly vibrant was running around the stage If you look closely, you might see me in the pit there I'm not sure what night they took that photo But he was circling around us buzzing around and just a ton of energy and it was exciting to have him here and and many of The many of the fans that saw that show said it was as good as any show that they ever seen of his of theirs. So Very exciting with that I'm going to Cross over into any questions about any of the material I just presented On the show Was it sold out? How did you do on numbers? Did it drive a lot of business to you? How how would you rate the in the impact of Aerosmith? Sure, I'm glad you paused me because I did want to give one special statistic from the from the weekend, but The show is incredibly successful You know what we look at with with entertainment is a number of metrics Certainly gaming revenue, but we look at overall lift to the resort. We look at our hotel occupancy We look at our food and beverage revenue. We also look at our unrated play, which is you know the play that comes in from the You know the the infrequent gaming customer that's there just to enjoy something that's non-gaming and By all measures those statistics were through the roof And I'm again, I'm glad you paused me chairwoman because one of the special One of the one of the special results from that weekend is Saturday night August 24th 2019 and the Mass Mutual Center was a record night at the Mass Mutual Center They did for the first time over a million dollars of ticketed revenue. I think the average ticket was a hundred ninety one dollars So set a record we look back at the at the history of that venue and of the top five Arena events in the history of Mass Mutual Center Four of them were were Aerosmith and one of them was the share show So we literally broke every record in the book based on the entertainment. We brought downtown So very proud of it. We want to build on that But it's it proved to be very successful and we're in the early stages of figuring out in 2020 how to repeat a lot of that success Thank you, right. Thank you On the gaming revenue side, this is a snapshot of the quarter as you can see we're We're hovering right around The 20 million mark Low 20 million mark on monthly gaming revenue and of course the gaming taxes that produces We certainly believe there's upside to those numbers and we're excited to to continue to grow We have thousands of new customers that join our database every day We're now activating a lot of our sister property Including Yonkers for example and some of that Activations is starting to catch hold and we're bringing those customers up to Massachusetts as well As well as our other properties. I mentioned the Red Sox is just a small example of where we're able to bring customers from Detroit and from New York The Patriots for example, we just had a lot of our great New York customers come in for the Jets games So we continue to cross market We we believe some of the changes that I just showed you on the floor are going to provide great lift and it's already proven to provide great lift and Although it's more of a q3 story the numbers are public each month that you that we publish them is with a very formidable competitor in the market and that's on core and I wouldn't visit their site and didn't want to like it, but loved everything they did and You should be very proud to have yet another great licensee in the market, but notwithstanding that wonderful facility We're still holding our own here in Springfield Equal to or not great or month over month since they've been in the market And I think you know despite the saturation sort of concerns It does show that there is a unique customer for MGM for Western Mass There's a great customer out in Eastern Mass and that facilities like MGM facilities like on court can really grow the market so Their form will competitor and we're looking to continue to grow our business notwithstanding having them in the market and most importantly to me we have many wonderful Boston customers and as we suspected some of them we're gonna spend some of their Some of their game you spend in Boston, but they've come out to see us again They've gone to see that facility and they remain loyal to to us. So we can share customers We can grow new customers and I'm very optimistic about the future of of the gaming market in the Commonwealth and here in Springfield as well This is a little snapshot of our lottery business and obviously It's showing some nice growth April and May hovered around the hundred thousand mark the June saw a significant bump. I Wish I could tell you I know why it jumped that much One of the things we are doing is we're pushing more and more lottery tickets as part of our promotional gift giving to our customers And I do think in addition to our own sales that that's causing a little bit more activity on the kiosk themselves so a lottery continues to be a very popular product and It speaks to the quality of the lottery program and we're we're leveraging it more and more in our our own promotional activities And we'll do we'll do more of it This is a view of a few highlights of our jackpots we had some great jackpot winners and It was what's great about a lot of these customers as it spans Locals as well as folks from out of out of town and it spans, you know, some of our Our top customers we call our know our customers as well as our entry-level customers So it's it's really it's a really robust jackpot program and we continue to Improve upon that and make sure that we're telling the story that there's a lot of great winners that are coming to the property And with that I'm gonna hand it over to our newest team member Daniel Miller. He was in charge of our risk management program He is now our director of compliance and we're lucky to have him and he's gonna review our compliance numbers If I could just interrupt on back on the lottery sure, and that's a very important slide Mike, you know, we have a commitment by statute to make sure that the lottery is It's not in any way cannibalized and so to your credit You've really shown great growth and I'm imagining that when the you know my my Former colleague Mike Sweeney makes his reports to the lottery commission that he's reporting that you've he's got a Great partner in you As with the other our other licensees, so we're really pleased with that if you figure out the magic Well, I'm sure you'll make sure to report it to us, but absolutely I'll dig into the numbers. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much it jumped in You know, they've gone over a billion and it's not lost on me that the revenues that are coming from the casino have helped Make that jump absolutely and it goes to local aid, of course Thank you, and we've got a great relationship with the executive director Sweeney. He's been a great partner himself from I think Lawrence he talked about some of the similarities of some of the ops, you know challenges that Springfield has and Very excited to continue to work with him and his team. Thank you. With that, I'll hand it off to Daniel Good morning, madam chair and commissioners As he said, I'm Daniel Miller I was the risk manager for MGM Springfield now the compliance director and I have a career with MGM overall as of sunday I'll have been with the company for five years. I was with risk management back in Las Vegas Although my introduction to you is gonna be with a subject that I know is sometimes relatively taboo underage people on the floor I think the numbers actually in the table do represent good things for us that our company is very diligent and continue on our Project to prevent this from happening So the the if we go from left to right the mine is intercepted on the gaming area itself as a whole You can see those numbers increase as you go down But again, it is testament to the fact that we're finding them very quickly We're getting them off of the floor very quickly And those kind of tying with the idea that April then May and June is when schools out colleges out So an actual visitation itself is up as well So although the numbers themselves are originally 158 179 seem high the percentage against the actual visitation is very very low moving over to minus intercepted gaming that includes both tables and Slots and predominantly its slots Because of being able to sort of get between them before being intercepted potentially But again those numbers when you look at the actual percentages 0.002 I think Mike in the last one said that we're aiming towards 0.00 and we're getting very very close with those numbers And then finally with the idea of the consumption the alcohol Same again to have three decimal points after and then find a number means we're really tying this down and getting as close as we can To to zero Can I ask you in terms of the stat for June? Yes, the gaming revenue was down in June, but that stat goes up Do you have an understanding as to whether it went up because people didn't understand it's 21 versus 18 Or was it something else that was driving that number to go up in June? I Don't know if it's directly related to that particular question whether it was 18 or 21 And I personally can't answer that question But I think visitation as a whole we had just under half a million people in June So even though the gaming revenue itself went down the number of people on property for other reasons entertainment food Etc. Was up so still present preventing them from getting on the floor itself Yeah, I'll just add to that. I think sometimes the gaming revenue numbers can be a bit misleading because For example, we've had a little bit of a hold issue over the over the summer. So just because the revenue Maybe maybe off month over month doesn't mean that the volume's been off So some of that's just been bad luck in terms of our hold against some of our bigger customers But to Dan's point, I think one of the things you'll see in the summer is as it gets warmer We start to get more families outdoor activation a lot of our concerts, etc so some of that is is I think just more family programming you might recall And hopefully we get ahead of it, but right around the Christmas time We had a spike and that's because of all the we are victims of all the family programming We did and most of these stats are about people entering the floor not necessarily gaming So just intercepting them is as we're just more conscious that there's younger people on the floor And one of the things I want to point out to is is the improvement. You know, we picked this image of our new kiosk You can see if it screams security it screams 21 plus and what we're trying to do is create more and more of a virtual checkpoint Your your team has been incredibly patient and understanding that we've got this great design And that what comes with it is is making sure that we were able to tell customers that you know there is a hard border here and I think That type of enhanced kiosk that we've done at the three corners of our property, you know goes a long way to do that So we will continue to stay on top of these numbers, but I'm looking at Some of our guest comments and from the underage folks if you're as I mentioned if you're a baby faced 40 year old You are gonna get you know harassed on our floor and they're understanding about it But it's I can see from the comments that our team is super focused on it because I'm getting that feedback from our customers When did you activate the the revised podium not curiosity because in the last Month it's about last 30 days. It had been in production over the last two months before that We've also installed a veridoc system, which allows us to check You know, we're seeing more and more incidents of fake IDs So it allows us to verify through the machine anything that we question whether the person's of age or if it's out of state License that we're less familiar with we're able to run it through the machine So it's it remains a major focus of ours and my personal commitment and that of the team is we meet weekly to go over The reports we just had ours right Daniel correct Yes, so that we're all making sure that we're focused on it and one of the things we're most proud of proud of is You know Since our last table game incident which we have zero tolerance for because there you have an employee That should be interceding We've we've run three three plus months without any table game incident So the incidents you see here Are you gonna see it at least in the in the third quarter are gonna be slot machine instance And for us it's all about the amount of time that we get to that customer because someone can sneak on the floor and get on A machine it's our obligation to make sure we we get to them as quickly as we can and those stats are really remarkable How quickly we're getting to these folks But to be served alcohol Someone missed an ID check right someone should have IDed that individual or Did someone of age by the alcohol for the minor it's hard to tell Yeah, as you can see they're they're really de minimis numbers a single listen is one too many But it's a combination of potentially someone missed an ID someone Someone on a shift change sometimes we see may have thought the person was over age and then Subsequently the next shift served them because they already had a drink, you know one of those Occasionally you get up you get a stamp for someone you know our our officers We've had a couple of since we're an officer read an ID and just you know saw that saw the the fact that it was it was a 2000 or 1998 Right, which gives you the 21 and just missed the date that they had just were under their birthday So, you know with as many customers we put through there There is a little bit of you know human error involved and we try to balance that with given how much of a priority this is But I'd submit that the the one two and three incidents are are fairly De minimis considering the volume of people were put in the room But still serious. I think you were touching on this and I know it's unfair because this is here This is not covering this time period, but I suspect you're pretty informed on these stats when we do get our The next quarterly report Are you trending in the right direction still or is it continuing to be a Chat a challenge Will we see numbers going in the right direction or in a different direction and you remember where we're at Daniel I don't know exact numbers for this quarter, but yes We are trending in the right direction And the little point that you made as well There's been a little bit of surgeons of some very good fake IDs that to the degree Even fooled the state troopers before it ran through a veridoc system. So the IDs themselves Just specific situations on their own. So those are ones on their own that happened And so now having the veridoc system that will hopefully tie that down as well. So it's an improved ID verification system. Yes, then it was before Previously it was the human that just looking at it making sure that it looked good and that the dates were correct Now we will you know run it to see does the system prove it is correct and any an official document so I Asked only because the summer months probably are a bigger challenge for this than Then the school year. So thank you. Yeah, and I think when you look at this is always a combination of you know Intercepts may be up, but what are the incidents of actual? Gaming or so I think I think you always have to be you know It's one of those stats where the the more enforcement there is it may look like there's more of a problem But really as a result of just more enforcement and then to your point the summer months are gonna continue to create more Visitation from that underage customer But we'll we'll stay transparent with your team and continue to update you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thanks Daniel You'll notice one of the great things about Daniel in addition to his competence and expertise is his English accent has a very calming effect on on your staff and Something we we continue to leverage in our discussions with them Good strategic good strategic higher there. That's right So we're gonna move on to our spend update with Ryan Gary our director of finance operations Ryan's been with us throughout the entire project Helped us with our early procurement plan and it's great that he's been elevated to head of finance and continues to Monitor our spend efforts Thanks Mike. Good morning, madam chair and commissioners. Good morning again So today I'm gonna go over a an overview of our diversity spend as I normally do As you are all aware MGM has continued to commit to a robust supplier diversity program we Commits a prioritizing, you know local and diverse Spend for anything any goods and services that we need to procure So this slide represents That performance over Q2 a couple things to note before you look at the numbers Overall biddable spend for Q2 is slightly down But that being said One of the highlights we have is a as an uptick in in women own spend We still do have a lot of work to do in minority owned businesses We we continue to support and sponsor the GNE MSDC We actually just hosted their annual expo at the property this month and We're working with Jill's team and with our local certification partners. We are continuing to really try and identify more minority owned businesses and Although, you know, we have a lot of work to do. We are really proud of the work. We've done thus far And especially in the veteran owned category. We continue to exceed We do We do want to continue to expand the number of businesses veteran owned businesses. We have But that being said, we are still able to exceed that goal quarter over quarter Another I think no I I believe I mentioned this last time we're still working on it But we do have some significant spend that is currently not counted as diverse spend But we are spending with diverse suppliers. They're just not certified yet so we have about 150k this quarter in woman owned business spend that we are working directly with the supplier on getting that certification done So that would account for another full percentage point. Had we been able to count that this quarter So that business is actually connected directly to our corporate supplier diversity team to try and get that done We're supporting them in any way we can We've even offered to you know help them With the with the fee to get it done Additionally additionally to that for minority owned businesses, we have a minority owned business that we are currently doing business with For q2 we spent about a hundred and fifty thousand As well with them that would account for about two percentage points So we'll be working with that supplier as well So as we as we pull these numbers and we continue to analyze the non-diverse spend That's really what where we're trying to target. Obviously. We want to convert spend that is non-diverse But also identify suppliers that are diverse that just haven't gone through the certification process so that's a continued effort and I am I'm hoping to be able to count that spend moving forward as A as a resort. I'll just add one more thing or as a company. Excuse me We are we are committed to a comprehensive supplier diversity program You know our mgm resorts international considers that a business imperative Because there's a lot of you know measurable benefits not only for our company, but for our suppliers In doing so So for today's presentation and because of the work that I think we've done that in minority owned businesses specifically I'd like to let you guys hear firsthand from one of our minority owned businesses With me today is Tiffany cutting with she's a VP of business development with CND electronics She's going to speak a little bit about her journey and with us She began with us during the construction phase and it's continued to that that relationship has continued to evolve Through operations. So with that, I'll turn it over to you Tiffany Thank you. Good morning, madam for sure chair and commissioners. Thank you for having me here today And to Mike and Ryan So CND electronics We are located in Holyoke. So we're just about 97 miles down the road and MGM has really been an integral part of growing our local business our core business had been an aerospace and defense for over 20 years and we work with a lot of Defense contractors supporting Electrical products and materials to them, but it wasn't necessarily Making local impact. We were working across the country and worldwide but MGM coming to town gave us the opportunity to invest more locally to work locally to Actually bring in a few more employees to our team By supporting them from not only the construction phase, but now on the operational side So CND electronics now supports MGM Springfields with a Granger partnership. So Granger has a Distributor Alliance partnership program and MGM and Granger worked together and vetted out small businesses in the local area that had a background or experience and distribution and so although MRO type supplies weren't something that we had done before working with aerospace and defense and The most stringent certifications you could ever imagine getting Along with the the game non-gaming vendor certifications we were vetted and competed for business and that was all thanks to MGM Springfields like Ryan was saying Helping in any way they can to support the local community Knowing that CND electronics was a distributor and had these core competencies But how can they help us create more jobs? How can they help us grow our business? And so in turn not only are we have we grown to support MGM Springfields But we are doing business with on core as well We have expanded the Granger relationship into our aerospace and defense side supplying those so it's been a really wonderful experience working with MGM and out of the majority of the Large businesses we work with I have never Seen a higher commitment to their outreach for supplier diversity and their commitment and their cross-checking Their notarized statements everything, you know, I work in it every single day and The way that they expect you to measure and the way that they measure it's it's really Kudos to them because you don't use you see more of a smoking mirror show a lot of the time with people's commitment But they're super committed their supplier diversity Support from Vegas was just here obviously they said we're members of the GN EMS DC we have been for as long as it's existed and You know she came and she spoke and they're really just super engaged and super excited about helping the community every day So and I see it every day because we're right here Can I ask you a question? I yeah, I'd love to just make sure I understand so In the in the case that you described from Granger the distributor alliance partnership program Were you not a distributor of Granger before and as part of all these? Outreach and help from MGM you now distribute Granger Granger parts Not just to MGM, but also others that is like that all right. Yeah, so that that was that was orchestrated With the help of of MGM. We would not be a distributor alliance partner had they not help support us Through that process and there's Mike. I take it. There's other opportunities that you look at in under this kind of program for other Commodities that you might be purchasing to look at Companies that may have the same kind of program to go through vendors like miss cutting Correct. Yeah, any anytime we can we can find a national relationship that can be serviced locally We want to make those connections It really it helps with capacity building and as Tiffany mentioned There's a variety of other ancillary opportunities that the business would you know have the opportunity to expand into Yeah, no, there's really a real ripple effect that goes the other way to I guess other customers That you also have And actually also to know I should have mentioned is that now I was down in Maryland at MGM National Harbor Monday and Tuesday because as of June 1st C&D electronics now helps support a portion of of that business as well So it's not just the success of other businesses in aerospace and defense or you know competitors to MGM But also within MGM We're offered opportunities and we now have another opportunity down in Maryland. So it's been very exciting for us So you hired new people because of these relationships and this so you've really your company has grown because of this opportunity absolutely, yeah, and that's and that's a key thing for us is I think being able to Provide local opportunities and grow, you know bringing we have two new people On board because of this the this relationship and because of the support the MGM has given us to help grow Grow locally in the community And just to clarify You became certified as an MBE WBE when I want to say well, we've met my so the Company's always been an MBE Since like my dad started the business in 1982 So I think the maybe women came in 2013 or 15 ish, I want to say right around the time of When MGM actually came to town But we've always been a mine. We've always been a minority company my father started the business in 1982 And were you always certified because I had a similar Question, I'm wondering were you always certified since that time? Have you had had the MBE certification? Yes? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, not just being one. I'm being certified. Oh different things so because of our Business with the government we do a ton of work with the DOD and other defense contractors So they require you to be certified with the GNM SDC So we've been and even greater than that. It's like, you know, the national the NMS DC. So CND electronics been certified by the NMS DC for I mean over 20 well over 20 25 years And just to clarify too, I and maybe you address this do you work closely with the OSD? We do yes. Yeah, so they're helpful Because you know, you really are an example of of why certification it really does Create opportunity and I know that there's been a lot of work done to make it more seamless. So We encourage you to continue working with OSD because I think you're create if they get certified the the work will follow You know as as it has with your with your company. It's a great example In great that your dad made sure to bring it in bring you into play to get that WBE Excellent, thanks, Tiffany. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you. Good story. You're really good story Any further questions on on this piece? Thank you All right next I'll briefly touch on the the local spend update so spend overall Again, it's slightly down quarter over quarter and again, that's indicative of Our continual efforts to you know manage expenses coming out of opening in our first, you know, quarter of operation Or two quarters of operation Couple of highlights that we do have is Definitely the Springfield category you can see a good uptick in spend in Springfield and in Western mass in general so Couple of metrics of our 398 suppliers 158 of those are within Massachusetts while another hundred and fifteen are specifically in Western Massachusetts. So that's 40 and 30 percent of our supply base Prospectively, so we're very proud about that Over 50 percent of our of our spend is is in the the commonwealth Just one question Some of these categories could be a sub Category of the other you could be local and I'm sorry commonwealth and Springfield Yeah, are the figures here? They're not cumulative. So those segments stand alone Yeah, good question One other update Madam chair, I think you you had asked the last meeting for some more detail regarding local or excuse me non-local spend So just generally I didn't I didn't add it to the presentation today But so there's a deeper understanding as to what goes into that non-local number there's a lot of Non-bitable type expenses for us so things like employee health insurance some of our gaming expenses Marketing expenses, so I'm sure you guys have most likely seen our new Always a reason in campaign. So those are those are corporate agreements corporate things that we don't bid out and then entertainment expense so The artist fee for share for example or for Aerosmith those that's where that that spend comes from predominantly so there's not a lot of Large buckets of of spend in there that that would be biddable The few that there are we we continually work on as I said to try and and prioritize those for for local and diverse businesses Thanks for that update Me they're from Hannover, so I don't know how that doesn't count as local You get registered so our my last slide here is just a Snapshot of our our outreach that we did in in q2 again. We try and do at least one event a month if not more One thing to note here is you know just the the geography we covered so We we we have a you know big focus obviously in Western Massachusetts But we are still going out making our way out to Boston when we can to attend events out there especially to support Minority businesses and find new minority businesses and build that supply chain any questions. Yeah, right Comment and equate or a couple of comments in a question. First of all, you know, I Continue to be impressed by the great job that you and Eddie and your whole team do you're aggressively Reaching out trying to find connections And I was glad to hear you talked about the certification piece because we just went through our regulatory Certification right update which says unless you're certified by one of these agencies You know count or we want you to count, but you got to go out and get the certification Obviously any feedback that you get from Folks that you have to work with, you know, that would be helpful to Jill and our licensing team You know, please feel free to share that certainly certainly so far not a lot of feedback and I think it's predominantly just because This really isn't going to impact us. It's only going to impact one supplier One woman-owned business local woman-owned business and we're working with her to To get the the new certification. So and it's free. So I mean, there's there's really no there's not a lot of roadblocks there And and in terms of impactors, it's it's minimal. So we're going to be Fully prepared to You know comply with the new the new reg. Okay, I just got made aware of Center for women in enterprise, which is one of our sort of you know recognized certification agencies is having a big summit or forum Down in Framingham next week. I'm not sure if that's on your guys calendar, but it sure is. Yes. That's great. That's great Yeah, you know the only thing obviously and you highlighted it was You know working hard to get the WBE and the MBE numbers up So I'll offer up Jill and her team to do whatever they can to help you out with it Thank you, and we're always happy to leverage them. They're great partners Do you have anything either after June or coming up for the Worcester area? As far as outreach, I don't believe so But I'll have to have to see what what the team has on the calendar. I don't know top my head. I'm sorry Yeah, we remain active members of the chamber So and we want to stay connected to Worcester as you know, that's that's an area that we think we can penetrate Further on the on the customer side Where we're we're gonna be founding partners of the Worcester Sox team and what they're doing in the stadium. So I just made a note, but we'll make sure that we stay engaged with their business community Great. Thank you. Commissioner. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you. Thank you With that, I'm gonna ask Mary Kate Marin to come up and give a update on employment Good morning, madam chair commissioners. Welcome back to Springfield. I think it's been way too long. I have the privilege of Updating you with the employment numbers for Q2 and let me just get this slide We have a little bit of a video. I'd like to show you first and then I'll jump into the presentation It's to be part of the entertainment industry, but in this in this industry in this area There just wasn't a lot of opportunities I was looking at either having to move to New York City or Boston or even LA and then I heard rumors about MGM Springfield coming to my community and I knew I had to be a part of it because I knew it would be an Incredible opportunity for not only myself, but for the city. I chose a career at MGM Springfield because of the people Everybody here has the same goal has wants to succeed the same way It's kind of cool to know that everybody wants to do the same thing as you It's a really great place here. Just being around the environment is a great place to work Mainly for change in scenery Everything's basically just swamp and everyone's setting like very traditional ways. I'd like to experiment with different traditions of different It's taste buds and the experience different things so I can broaden my own fry Working at MGM Springfield made a positive impact on my life For my family as well family They're nothing more, but happier for me over here I'm like I like to see the community community sees me from my outside point and makes me feel good So I feel like that positive pack. It just feels all good together It's definitely made me have a lot more experience a lot more culture in what I'm doing So I've gotten a lot more confidence in what I'm creating for people Working for MGM Springfield has changed my life completely What MGM has offered me is more than just a job But it's a career path with a company in an industry that I can grow with and just excel in my area here in Massachusetts and Something that I never thought I would say is that I'm now a homeowner in Springfield and without MGM I don't think that would have ever been something that would have happened Just a few notes every individual and every employee you saw there has already been promoted And Amanda Gagnon, I I think you'll recognize her. She was one of the original five Who were part of the campaign back in the way back in around 2012? So really a privilege to have her and I think she's been promoted a couple of times and now reports directly to Tally Spira and Entertainment and she's very proud of the house So it just it shows to our commitment that we've been saying to you and all for years It's really keeping the the great talent here in Springfield keeping them in western mass And we're really proud to have those those three employees So just wanted to just share that little video before we get into the presentation You know in Marra cave I can one of the one of the other individuals you saw is Lewis Rivera front desk manager his father is a shift manager in Table games as well So it's a bit of a family affair But what's special about Lewis is he started as a security officer and we highlighted him at our veterans hometown heroes a breakfast that which we hosted about six months ago Lewis Delivered when he was a security officer life-saving CPR to an individual and he stayed very close to that customer that customer's local And has come back and visited Lewis and visited us And then he got promoted into the hotel department where he's he's really shine So I am confident Lewis will continue to get promoted through the ranks because he's one of those special people that delivers great customer service and Really really special to have them and there's many many more We could we could have a two-hour long video of the great employees that we've had that grown throughout this This property in the last year So thank you. Do you have that training or was that part of your training? He can't he had but training but we also provide that and with our security officers are part of the academy that they go through So I wanted to bring to your attention slide 29 to speak to the progress and our hiring goals This is just a graphic and the next slide will go into a little bit more detail But from a high level as you recall our host community agreement Best-effort goals for Springfield residents 35 percent We are currently at 41 percent for during the end of the second quarter Women goal if you recall 50 percent 44.5 and we'll go into a little bit more depth on that in the next slide commissioners Minorities 50 percent. We're at 53 point six percent and that veteran our HCA goal was 2 percent if you recall We had a lot of cross collaborations with the veterans in the area. We committed to four And now we're at six. I just wanted to remind the commissioners of that very Very encouraged by that the next slide on 30 really will go into detail of the employees on the top bar You'll see the full-time versus the part-time breakout We had and you can see within below in the other chart It is not a not a HCA goal But we have really talked about how important it was being here in Western mass that we are going to concentrate with that pipeline with our Western mass counties of Hamden Berkshire Franklin and Hampshire and you can see that 76 percent of our entire Population pool for employees is full-time very very close to some of the conversations We've had for that 80-20 split I do want to bring up is that a lot of our employees are asking for part-time work I've had conversations with Jill and her team it continue will continue to watch this It is most important that we hear our employees as Mike has mentioned earlier And to be able to give them what their family and what they need Individually so that is something that the employment team continues to look at as we look at filling our positions Which will go into a another slide and let you know where we are With positions that are open and what we're doing with the pipeline Mary Kate, can I can I go back? Just to this slide about the categories. I think it's great that you're exceeding your Springfield resident Goal or HCA. I'm just curious how when do you? Assertain their residency. I don't know that this will be an issue. I hope it's not But if somebody gets a job as a resident and then moves away, I guess it works the other way as well Is there what in your process? Can you tell us at least in keeping track going forward to see if there is a trend? Sure, so we do pull this data from our workday system and that as you recall is also the system in which a Can a candidate applies it's a piece of the talent acquisition Once they become an active employee We pull what the employee puts into workday and that is we are very diligent and communicating with our employees to update Those addresses really from a tax perspective every year so we can get that information out We do have commissioner people moving in moving out and changing addresses It's not something that we've done a very very deep dive to audit But we do stay in touch with our employees to make sure that information is the most up-to-date that they provide to us And that excuse me in that report is pulled for the the quarter ending for this right So as we continue to see these reports in the future, you know This number will be as up-to-date as you can have it in your records. That's correct Not necessarily a date of hire if you will that's right It really would be good to know if Local residents are choosing to stay in the city You know that was an issue in Atlantic City where many many people got jobs and left the city But it doesn't look like you're seeing that so far We haven't seen that and I think the last meeting we did discuss of all the wonderful Additional development from a housing perspective that is in happening in Springfield And as people do get promoted and move on and start to form families. There is this occasional I want more room. I want more family space. I want to go into a different school system So I think it is important that we continue to work cross collaboratively with the mayor And Mr. Kennedy to ensure that the economic development does happen in Springfield to provide the housing But there is going to be that as we people progress and become and move up to be directors and so on they will move on But we can definitely look at that commissioner for you and try to gather those numbers for you. Thank you with respect to the request for more part-time opportunities if you Quite properly address those with your employees in order to meet their family needs. Does that mean that we'll see Increased part-time in other words a reduction to a part-time position Does that create an opportunity for a second employee or would it simply be a reduction from full-time to part-time? It would really depend on the business needs and and given that we are still in the process of Stabilizing our intent is to hire as many people to keep the business going We really look at and have had really individual Conversations with our employees and they come they speak to their manager first madam chair and then we'll come to us We try first to see what we can do and give them support outside of the work first Is there a way we can put them in charge in touch with additional daycare providers? So if that becomes a challenge if that's what's brought to us We'll work with our partners out outside the property first an Education opportunity that someone might want to go. Are we able to maybe switch a schedule and keep them full-time? So until we really exhausted all of our support systems for an employee We don't start talking about lowering because we want to make sure that we want someone to have education Of course and be also be full-time But if the need is there part-time the intent is not to lower the headcount But to give the opportunity for the employee to work to their needs and then we would need to backfill To cover the hours that might be missing if they were to drop from from full-time to part-time Can you if I answered your question? Yeah, you did can can you remind me of your last quarterly report numbers with respect to full Employees the total than the full-time in the part-time. Do you have those? Yes? We were slightly higher I believe we are at seventy seven point two percent Madam chair if my memory serves me the for the full for the full time Do you have the total number of employees? Yes, it's in it's in this report ma'am. It is There's a quarterly break down. It's 2303 ma'am. So it was 20. Sorry about that Mike If I missed 20 303 And now we're at 2054 and then it was it went from Maybe it's right here. Maybe it's just a slight percentage. I see It's not included and I will make sure that we include that for you ma'am moving forward But I my recollection I think it's in the 77 Full-time right, so not so about a 10% drop correct, okay? Well I'm all for making family adjustments by muscle Oh, no, I don't think it's a 10% drop, right? You went from 77 100 so sorry. It's one. Yes. I was in the math major. No, sorry The 10% ma'am is the overall if it went in our favor. I would have let the mistake go by but We're streaming here. We are okay. Thanks So you can see we are most proud as you know We always talked about this onion during the campaign phase and keeping things in Springfield Very very proud the team the town acquisition team and also all of our workforce partners Holyoke Community College We have stick and all of the partners and even the gaming so we're really concentrating on the Springfield resident So I'm happy to to dive in to the numbers a little bit more answer any questions You might have from any changes from over the the first quarter of the year In my apologies for missing that I know this is a matter of the industry just But there's how's your turnover? Just how's that evolving so I know I got few meetings ago before opening I wanted to be under or at 30% Unfortunately, we are finding ourselves more at the 40% And there's a couple of those slides as we go into but let me just answer that question We currently have 40 to requisite requisitions open that accounts for about 125 to 130 full-time Excuse me positions within the property. We are hiring monthly approximately a hundred people Unfortunately, we are losing about that same amount And right before the meeting I spoke to Jill to really talk about continued efforts from a workforce development perspective Getting people ready for positions not more not the tactical and technical Not the knife skills that we continue to need from chefs, but really interviewing filling out applications ESL Happy to report. We have kickstart the Internal ESL program for our employees as per requirement. So that has been something good But we really need additional support from a workforce development perspective on ESL English as a second language Interviewing skills getting people a little bit more ready from a customer service perspective It is true that if you come in with that great attitude, we will train you up What is happening right now is that we're not seeing we'll have people in our requisitions and we'll interview we'll have 40 people we put out Calls we're not getting calls back By the time we're getting people through drug background in licensing and the good news is we have about 125 individuals in those three categories right now once they clear they'll be hired people are dropping out So we're really trying to dig in of why that is happening and I think if there is an opportunity for us to really kind of tweak that And find out what that lynch pin is sir I think we might be able to make some additional strides by keeping people in the process We're all ears to the extent that we have any in the licensing system for example, but I know that's not the only Step and I know that Commissioner Stebbins already volunteered Jill so I will take you up on that Jill Yes So we did talk about the workforce and the mitigation funds and I think there's some opportunities Not only for us as an employer, but maybe some additional employers and some of the community-based organizations in the area Yeah, no it is it is timely. We will be discussing the mitigation guidelines Later today and one of the things that I thought as I was reading the packet is really as we are more on a steady state Understanding that there's a fair fair amount of turnover and then into the industry How much of these workforce development monies are are needed and it sounds like They are they are needed and I think from an employer perspective We've always said, you know that when the doors opened a year ago And even to this day workforce development does not stop we we are going to be here for a very long time We have a commitment To the state and the city and and to the really even more importantly to the residents of this area We have to do everything in our power and we're trying to keep our you know really our Finger on the dial of what is that linchpin? You know as unemployment goes down, which is a win for the Commonwealth the area in the entire Dire region, you know the pool goes down So we really have to really we start then recruiting from outside areas or Basically stealing from other employees We are going to continue to do that won't be candid because we want the best employees as part of MGM Springfield But we have to really kind of look at what that pool looks like and keep our finger on the dial there, sir Mary Kate the the turnover itself What are the exit interviews telling you is it a readiness for employment or the schedule is Fitting with some there's a couple of silos. I think there's one more of that Kind of involuntary. Unfortunately employees are not showing up to work We have ready for this I think they're maybe not ready for 24 7 so there is there is that anecdotal The volume seems to be a little bit higher than some people are accustomed to We are open 24 7 on the casino floor but restaurant and the hospitality is very similar to what is already in Springfield in the area But there is also this perception is I've made my money for the weekend And I don't want to if you're full-time. You've worked Friday Saturday Sunday now You don't want to come back Monday Tuesday, so then they're calling out last weekend alone Food and beverage have 50 call-outs That is a lot And though it was wonderful weather, so And that's that's a challenge for us, so we continue to coach and education up our employees I think it really comes to we've had conversations with Mike and the executive team What can we do to better mentor our individuals? So we are going to launch a new program really concentrating on Certain areas and certain individuals within the property having lunch with Mike spending time with them to talk about how he progressed through the hospitality in his world here having Conversations if a Jorge Perez our regional president comes in town or even our chair Jim Murn so there's going to be some opportunities that we're going to launch Internally to try to really keep people more in the fold It's attendance We do have some challenges Unfortunately with theft They're moving out to better and bigger things. We've lost 125 table game dealers to encore So we're doing additional recruitment, which will go into a little bit more depth. It's really a whole gamut of unfortunately Things that are impacting there. There's family crisis too so we will continue to work with our employees through our Employee assistance program even when they're not with us So that's the commitment that we've made to the Commission and the state when we first came here, too Thank you I'll just add to that because I know Mary Kate takes the turnover Percentage personally I do as well because I like to think we provide the best employment opportunity certainly in the region You know, one of the things you see and that we're seeing in a more mature operation is a lot of a lot of our opportunities because of seniority and shift bids are overnight opportunities and When we have applicants and we ask them if they would be willing to work any shift a lot of them say yes Knowing that that's important to the application process But hoping they don't get the overnight and when they ultimately are given the overnight You know, they'll give it a try and then and then decide that they're going to leave their position So some of that is driving some of the involuntary on some of the voluntary and voluntary resignations, I think we I looked at the encore impact In addition to 125 dealers. We also lost management. So we believe the number is closer to 200 of our table games FT's left the operation because of on core, you know, we felt that particularly in May and June as they got closer to their opening I don't certainly don't fault them yet great trained employees are already licensed licensed being key to some of the pre-opening Timeline and they got more aggressive with offering our folks Opportunities so some of this I feel like is a one-time hit because of on court that we're trying to recover from and we are We're bringing more people through the school and and some of our other competitors that are that have lost business and are shedding some Jobs, but it's really a number of factors and one of the things that's more of a public policy issues Mary Kay and I have had the conversation We have a lot of folks that are going to part-time because full-time will cause them to lose their public assistance And they actually get people in this trap of not wanting to work because they would be net upside down Losing the public assistance that's available and that's something that we probably also figure out how to tackle And it's not a new issue, but it's something we feel all the time And it's um, it's an unfortunate situation sort of being punished in that sense for for working I mean, I think we've talked about that too about a tiered Benefit system right and there were conversations a year or two ago But that that takes a heavy lift From Boston, so you know we would be willing to be working with you and to volunteer Springfield and Wavy Western mass for any type of pilot program if some of our representatives are listening It's it's really really needed from an employee or employer perspective so Just to move on with our continued recruitment efforts You can see as we continue to partner with UMass Amherst the universities and colleges and Community colleges is in the area You can see we are trying for work for readiness with doing mock interviews with Dress for Success And some of you can see some of the career fairs and workshops that we do and continue to work with Roka So that the same things we did during our ramp up we continue to do we believe it's important Continue to model what the surrounding community looks like so our customers are welcomed by everyone So that is slide 31 and If you transition into it's one of you see some of these employee stories that we really have already talked about Sarah Jones on the left is our Executive pastry chef and I can tell you from experience. I have a muffin top myself because of the way She is able to bake So I think a wellness program like it might be much needed at least for myself And maybe some others might might say that so this was recently ran in the Republican It was also on mass live as we really talked about Women in unconventional roles As you can see we have one of our canine officers with her dog. They are inseparable And they start to mirror each other which is pretty amazing because they've been together just for so long And you continue through the slides Janae Mays is a locksmith And from her and from my and from Jason Groswell's Perspective we would need two or three or four people to replace her If she was ever to leave so we would just wanted to share some of these additional special stories with you That have been in the news in the last few weeks and months Just one highlight, which I did mention earlier madam chair and commissioners on page 36. You can see our open requisitions There are 42 on that page and they account for approximately a hundred and twenty five headcount And as stated earlier, we are constantly recruiting Before and I you know as I think back to to pre-opening and in in the Incredible mass hiring events and if you remember the one we had here Jill and I had talked about having and Mike Mathis want us to do one of these open And I remember going back and forth and Mike and saying, you know, I'm have a little OCD and control issues So I wanted people in the system first and he's like we have to try it So we did we we shipped in over a hundred of our colleagues from Surrounding properties and if you remember Mass Mutual Center I think we had a line of about seven hundred people outside when we opened the doors at nine We had to close it at four o'clock because we couldn't get people through the system But I think we had a close to 2700 individuals come through that hiring event I did speak to Jason Randall our director of human resources and we were going to do something similar It's going to be a hiring event It won't be to that scale But we're really going to focus in on our open racks And if you really take a deep dive into them and many our food and beverage in that silo and in that hospitality area So more information to come on that I think that that type of excitement Restarts I think with our individuals who might be looking for a position I think we need to recreate that excitement that we had 14 or 16 months ago So that's going to come very shortly We'll make sure that we keep you up to date on that opportunity and would welcome For you to welcome you back to that excitement for Springfield with another hiring event Mary Kay, what seemed to be the the most difficult positions you're Struggling to find people We continue to need cooks It's a it's a very hard and rigorous and I think our vice president Anthony would tell you it's a very rigorous position We continue to work with Holyoke Community College in the culinary school to turn out cooks more quickly That's a big one front line position utility porter Stewarding any of those really front line Commissioner front line positions continue unfortunately to have the higher attrition rate and as Mike mentioned It's definitely grave When typically when you come in after the bid Process individuals who've been here longer want more of the traditional hours kind of that You know beginning day shift and swing is okay, but gets you to 11 Overnight or sunrise really becomes that one that the new employees come into to Mike's point and then Staying long enough. They're able to bid in so we continue to look at that And it would be a nice breakdown and I'll provide that next quarter is what's the attrition by shift So if I'm able to break kind of pull that information for you It'd be a nice Kind of a little nugget for us to all look at and see where that is and see if we can break it down by Division it'd be something nice to dig into so I appreciate the the feedback If I can just go back to the number and thank you for your patience with me as I Struggle with my sight here. I just want to make sure that so You're at 2054 now and the opportunities if you if you could fill them all tomorrow Mary Kate What would the number be? so yes, I have Approximately 120 individuals in drug background and licensing so all three so they have been offered a position So that would be so 2054 plus 120. That's correct And that number would hold if we had no attrition And we had no headcount loss and so the on page 30 to our page 32 opportunities Those are not you'd have not identified candidates for those those are open Requisitions and those are additional positions and opportunities So to your point madam chair if we were to add our current number What's in the pipeline and add our numbers of the open? Requisitions with the approximate headcount and not lose anyone we would be closer to almost 2350 to 2400 well, that's an important fact right yeah, and so it's about yeah, so these opportunities reflect another hundred or so That's correct ma'am Thank you for that clarification. I was putting them together. I thought the open and Pipeline were the same. Yes, so my apologies for not being clear. I'm glad you clarified it so the number if if we can help I'll Get these opportunities filled. This is a real opportunity for Massachusetts You'll be your goal would be actually higher than the number we saw at your last quarterly report Right as long as there was no attrition without it and we understand that assumption Yes, but full to your point full employment would look yes would be a bigger number than last quarter Correct, you know one of the one of the stats that doesn't come through here, too Is is the overtime opportunities which you know when we're understaffed, you know It's a little bit of quality over quantity We have a lot of great employees that look forward to the overtime hours and that's always the flip side I'm always happy to see those folks really take advantage of those while we're in this stage of trying to recover from the losses of folks that we had to encore for example or And in your staff has been great But you know I think we all recognize there's a little bit of a slowdown in licensing processing time because you're trying to get Encore open and that's a little bit of the of the delay and trying to turn the drug and background into start dates Your staff is recovered from that, but we certainly felt that in Q2 So so the employment stories is always a little complex, but to your point we need more employees and we continue to go out in the market and try to get them and The success of the economy frankly is is something that's hurting those efforts and that's a good problem to have for all of us I think the opportunity for the mentoring that you mentioned is is very Critical and to give the stories of those who have started in a position and made their way through Into full full careers. I know Bruce you always stress that in terms of the movement from Entryway, and I think you led with a statistic about those who were hired early that they've all had Yes, it was the three individuals on the video They've all been promoted so there's opportunity for promotion, and so it's a career Decision and and that comes with maybe the overtime, so I'm sure that message will come through and your mentoring As you go through it Yeah, that's that's part of piece. That's part of our new hire orientation We continue to bring new classes of people in I tell them my story I tell them the story of Bill Hornbuckle the the president of a fortune 500 company And he started at the ground level He famously tells the story. He was changing light bulbs on the flamingo sign He would he would cross out the light bulbs and facilities would change them out overnight And he's now the number two at a fortune 500 company and it's a pure meritocracy And that's what I tell every one of our employees They can do anything in this organization as long as they work hard and and treat our customers and each other with respect Yeah, it's an example for woman Karen Kaplan at Hill holiday started its receptionist There's many many opportunities to share those stories for growth. So thank you. I'm glad we got that number Yeah, thanks for clarifying that appreciate it. I just one other item before you guys go. We've obviously done some changes to our Licensing and registration form trying to dig down and help applicants understand some of the security questions of the Criminal background questions, which can kick somebody out further down the line after you've kind of gone through the process. So You know the conversations that we can have with your team the conversations We hope you can have with your employees the conversations Maybe we should revisit with some of the community-based organizations you're working with might be helpful I would also just put a shout out to one of your team members who's the receptionist in 95 State Street Tron a blank on her name Miley. She is Fantastic, you know puts a smile on a grumpy gaming regulators Go into the building. So even though she's not front of house on the floor. There's still that You know that training mindset which resonates with people around the property. So thank you for the feedback. We appreciate it It's great. And we're some of Bruce your commissioners as you were at the Walburners groundbreaking, you know, that's a that's a Facility that should bring about a hundred employees to to the campus. So there is an upward trajectory That that's occurring on the employment side, especially as we ramp the business up So we all want the business to be more robust and employment opportunities to be more more robust And we're working every day to make sure that happens These nice stories highlighting some women in non-traditional jobs, but it continues to be a challenge for you to meet your hiring goal when it comes to women Yes, I think With respect, you know having a 50-50 is always hard right because just one person would skew that We do have roles that we are really diving in from a you know Operating engineer traditionally tend to be men so Jason Rose well our VP facilities having conversations with the unions, you know There's not a lot of work is that will they be willing to to bring women to us So he's had been heading up that type of effort this building also Historically has been male dominated with the ushers Tech change over in some of those positions But as you see we're cracking that cracking that window and cracking that ceiling that will continue to get women into non non-traditional roles, but it goes the other way too, right and so We would love to see some men and just roles that might be just women like in spa and salon and so You know, we're looking at it both ways commissioner, but I appreciate that feedback and it's a constant a constant fight that we are taking on Great. Thanks. Thanks, Mary. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Great discussion. So at this time Love to bring up true killin. He's a new member of the team. It'll be a new face to you But a hugely important role. He's our vice president marketing Having come from Las Vegas. He's part of the MGM family has relocated with this family here and is in charge of Really activating the casino floor with promotions and continue to dig into the database and grow our customer base So without further ado true killin Thanks, Mike Thank you. It's an honor to be here today. I really appreciate you having me Welcome Marking entertainment and events As Mike mentioned we continue to offer dynamic Promotions and activities to our loyalty program The April promotions we started with ATV And then we moved right up into two motorcycles and then right into June we had the million MGM millions It's really just a snapshot of the quarter, but Ramping up our promotion seems to be a theme for us getting more exciting every time every month I think we're getting better and We continue to see the great number of visitors come into the property And as well as joining our loyalty program So I look forward to crowning more winners next quarter and I think we're we're doing better every month I'll just say Drew's already had immediate impact. We're digging into the database. We're looking at Through surveys. What is our what is our customer looking for in terms of promotional activity? You know cars have been very successful. We're rolling out more cars as well and And some exciting moves are on the floor as you go on to the MGM floor You'll see a ton of activity one of the things we're doing is reducing the number of machines to give a more comfortable experience and the reduction also Allows us to put more creative products out there as we call them the carousels or the big screens breaking up the big slot banks and and creating more of an interesting experience and and Drew's helped us, you know spearhead that effort. So a lot of exciting promotional activity coming on the remainder of this year and largely led by Drew Great. So if if you don't have any further questions, let me just I think I'm Gonna talk a little bit about the community engagement So just just a highlight obviously a big part of MGM and certainly at what I would think you would expect from your licensee Is our engagement in the community and here's just a few examples. We did a bowling program bowl for kids and As well as a Springfield Dragon boat race were taken advantage of the Connecticut River and participating in their annual river boat Race and then we participate in the Northampton Pride Festival So really an example, you know, these community events are always a win-win Not only is it something good for the community in terms of support But it's a great opportunity for team building for our for our folks and they love to get out and and what we've learned with with You know the the new Millennial employee is that so much of their job experience is Engagement and feeling proud of the place that they work for so we try to take as advantage of as many of these Type of engagement opportunities as we can. There's just a couple of examples Our meeting group business which is which is growing and I'm excited about and I talked to you early about unrated business Unrated is an important part of of our business model and frankly something that Springfield you know Would suffered from because of some of us historical issues with with lack of activation of Main Street and And lack of programming and Mass Mutual Center all of which we're helping to grow But I think of this as lanyards when you go to Las Vegas much of Las Vegas Success is that is that midweek convention guests who has a lanyard is in for a meeting group and Spends a few dollars on the casino floor spends certainly spends a lot of money in the restaurants and we're starting to find our niche there We've got a great sales team that's driving incentive-based business we've got a Franchise dealer program and we're finding Auto dealers from across the country that have identified Springfield is a great value place to bring their annual meetings their quarterly meetings We're starting to see renewals of those of those groups We've got some of the biggest social programs certainly Judy Matt's Bright night's Gala is I think was shown in the bottom left and other big social events So is bringing people to the to the casino to the resort that wouldn't be there for gaming But you know certainly would spend some money on the casino floor and and support all the non gaming venues So it's a it's a program that's really starting to take hold and I'm excited about the trajectory of our meeting group business If no other questions, I'm gonna roll over to entertainment So I'm gonna introduce now Talia Spara she's our director of entertainment and she single-handedly is responsible for bringing Aerosmith to downtown Forcehold out shows and all the other great programming MGM live series tireless effort. She's Amanda's boss and It's helping to really create some great great careers in entertainment. So one of the fun is and frankly Toughest jobs on the property is is tall. Yes So today we'll share with you a little bit about what we've been doing on the plaza and the armory specific to Q2 So we had about 121 total activations in Q2 April through June And that's large and small events. That's across all of the venues that we program mass mutual center Symphony Hall Plaza armory in the ballroom space and so highlight just a couple MGM live, which is our summer concert series. We had 31 shows Six of which were ticketed 25 of which were free and open to the public. We had about 12 Morning workouts with yoga in our Da Vinci Park. We had 37 comedy shows And we had 13 food truck Fridays during that time just to highlight a couple of the events that we did and Then moving on to our entertainment and nightlife portion a couple images here, of course We did welcome share in April a very successful event a sold-out arena here at mass mutual center and the second highest grossing Entertainment show the mass mutual center has seen in its history. So very proud to have welcomed her You saw a little snippet of her saying happy anniversary on our video. So she's an artist That really shows sort of the brand power and leverage that we can pull from Vegas to pull artists over here to Western, Massachusetts. So and then of course we had Rob gonkowski from the Patriots come celebrate his birthday with us Terry fader air supply and Murphy's boxing partnership that Mike touched on And then our upcoming entertainment calendar is through the end of the year I won't go line by line, but just a couple highlights that we're really excited about in October We're gonna welcome smokey Robinson to Symphony Hall. We do have family feud live With celebrity guests coming in October as well to the symphony hall we have Slayer and Primus coming to the mass mutual center in November We're right under 5,000 tickets sold for that. So another sort of hero event that we're looking forward to for the downtown We've got Michael Carbonaro live coming to Symphony Hall in November as well And then some really great holiday programming Brian sets our orchestra if you've ever seen that show It's a real treat. They will become in a symphony hall and then of course We will have the opening of our ice rink and the Holiday tree lighting as well towards the end of November that is in support of parade of big balloons that we see downtown So I think those are sort of my biggest highlights. Are there any questions on the programming coming up? I had a quick question and Mike you've touched touched on it is you're finding the opportunities to bring in Patrons players from New York to Troy, you know connecting them to a socks game or what have you?   Promotions that that you've not only done, but you got lined up for kind of the rest of the year Yeah, it's a great question and something we continue to to work on I think You know a few examples are we've got a leaf peeping sort of program that we're trying to you know Things that are uniquely New England that we can offer a customer in another market that justifies a flight to come see us And then an extended stay so That a skiing program is is right on we've talked about Incorporating our you know our steakhouse and our spa into a package so that if someone enjoys a week And they can come back for a spa treatment and have a great steak dinner and our host would would try to try to host that program so You know golf is a big is a big part of the program seasonally We've got a great partnership with a great horse out in Hamden Really a world-class facility and building tournaments around that so that one of the fun promotions that When you a part of an MGM is is rivalries between different sister properties So you know an MGM grand Detroit? Group of customers competing with the MGM Springfield and we would provide a prize pool And then we would you know some of this is import But also some of this is export so we would send our customers down to Detroit for the same thing And we're already developing a golf program with with that sister property. So Continue to look at different opportunities We want to activate the Connecticut River one of our one of our One of our executive team members Jason Rucker who's head up head up of security. He was working our our 4th of July program looked down on the Connecticut River because we hosted it from our garage rooftop and saw you know people that had taken out personal boats to watch the fireworks and Came up with the idea of doing something Customer-based with with a boat out on the on the river and that's something that would be a special Opportunity that we think we could import some business for so you know We're always open to new ideas to to get people to come here stay longer and really drive that cross cross property activation So more to come on that but the sports partnerships are obviously really compelling and those are probably our main focus Out of the gate And just add to that an example like arrow Smith where we had 20,000 visitors Just a quick snapshot of where those visitors we had visitors from over 41 states come for that show And we worked extensively with the bid the business improvement district downtown and the GSC VB And you know what are the what are the restaurant offerings outside of MGM because even we couldn't host everybody that was in town ourselves So continue to work with the community groups on advertising. What else is available downtown while they're here for their stay? We can do more on that front and we definitely will now that we've Steadyed our operation a little bit. The next strategic point is looking at things like that Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Thanks to you So I'm going to close it out by talking about economic development Hopefully I've got this I took a picture this morning that I hope made it fantastic So I know you're coming from the the pike side. This is on the long meadow line. So you may not have seen this but For the record it was it was stalled traffic. So I was not moving when I took this photo But these were you know as any anybody who's in a home fling not stealing too much of Tim Sheehan's thunder here But any community looking for economic development wants to see crane swinging and I thought this was a really great opportunity to highlight What is happening outside our four corners? We were we had just celebrated the wall burgers a grand opening a week ago with the chairwoman and Commissioner Stebbins across the street I highlighted to the group that was assembled that were within a month of a 12,000 square foot flagship CVS That's going to open and not only is that a significant business But it's significant because it supports market rate housing Because what we've seen is that the the brave young professionals that are moving downtown We really need to support them so that they stay downtown and have all those services that they need and this would be a Pharmacy and obviously groceries and things like that Anecdotally one of one of one of our young professionals I stopped me in the hall the other day and I was catching up with Differencing things that she was her summer was going and she's complaining that for the third year in a row the landlord had hiked her monthly rent by a hundred dollars and I told her that's actually a good thing She didn't appreciate that but that really showed that there is demand for market rate housing and those are the kinds of You know those are the kinds of elements that drive additional investment and I have heard from other Commercial business owners who are interested in our statistics because they're seeing rents grow up and they're looking to invest capital To turn some of these vacant buildings into market rate housing So what we had all hoped for is happening is it may not be happening as quickly as we all would like but there is ancillary development going on throughout the downtown and This is just a small example. These two cranes. I believe our building the 130 room hotel on the riverfront the old York Street jail and it's going to be skydiving and Rock climbing complex So one more great amenity that that frankly builds builds critical mass so that when we have customers come to us They can go explore and find other things to do in the downtown that drives a longer stay which you know benefits us all So I just wanted to I wanted to show those cranes I was really proud driving in that that we were a part of that that story a couple of tapes residential development, I think Ombudsman Zamba gave gave an update We continue to make progress there. I think the most tangible step is mass housing who is helping us to manage this project and bring the different parties together both public dollars and private dollars has distributed a Inter interparty agreement that all the parties are looking at to mark up They would be essentially the project manager of the 31 Elm Street project so we're still firming up a few sources and uses of the funds but a Meaningful step to have an agreement that we can all react to and start working on it and driving So once that agreement is signed, I don't want to give you a projection on when that would happen But it's something that we continue to work on month to month. I think that'll drive Deadlines and the initial sort of groundbreaking and feasibility and you know, sort of pre-development work So I'm hoping this time As of our next update that we can give you a really meaningful update on where that agreement stands and and Some of the early, you know, milestone hard hard construction pre-opening work that we would have planned as part of that So it's a meaningful project that Frankly, none of us are willing to give up on because it means that much for the downtown mentioned Walberters We had a had our groundbreaking We're looking for an early summer opening. Hopefully we can beat that. We've said July is the outside date, but that is underway The armory we continue to look at potential future programming But frankly it really works really well as a flex space And that's something I said early on is one of the benefits of slowing down on that development is it gives us a Chance to try different things in there and give different types of customers Opportunity to view that beautiful building. So we have a comedy show series. We do banquets in there as well It's a it's a green room for a lot of the acts that go out onto the Out onto the plaza. So I think as many people as we can put in there until we figure out What is its future use is a benefit to anybody that comes through the facility? The VIP lounge we plan to open Shortly and it'll kick off really our reinvestment in our VIP customer. It's something they've asked for it was frankly a miss on our part and Excited to make that offering you see the rendering to the left It's going to be a beautiful space and keeping with our with the whole aesthetic of the property And then I'll just close with sports wagering It's it's critically important and I want to keep it on the radar You know we've seen in some of our other markets our sister properties Tremend that our Mississippi properties for example are starting to have record numbers Attributable to sports betting and it's not in the sports betting revenue itself It's the lift it gives to the entire property and the restaurants and the bars people are coming longer they're bringing you know customers that wouldn't normally be a gaming customer, but they're a sports betting customer and It's something that's important to the Commonwealth Particularly for Springfield who's on the border of a surrounding state who's aggressively looking at sports betting? Especially with geo fencing and the opportunity you have to sports bed outside of brick and mortar If if Connecticut is able to get there before us, you know, we will have customers that will go across the state line and Consume that product and spend dollars in a surrounding state and obviously part of the part of the history of gaming Massachusetts In some ways we're 20 years behind our competitors and I hate to see it happen in in Massachusetts, so I'll continue to Push on behalf of the Commonwealth and our property and the city of Springfield Because of the opportunities that provides for employment and for a better customer experience We recently did a survey of our customers our M. Like customers asked them a bunch of questions But one of the things we inserted there was a sports betting question a third of our customers want sports betting as a product 80% of those customers about 25% of the entire pool Are passionate enough about it that they say it would drive a decision whether to go to us or go to a competitor if they Were to provide it and we didn't so it's it's really important to our customers in terms of the overall experience and especially in a In a jurisdiction like the Commonwealth that has such a rich sports history and great franchises It's it's it's a it's a service and a product that our customers that we're not meeting and I'm hoping that we can continue to to push that You know that initiative forward. I know there are other issues that the legislature is grappling with But it's an important one for the success of of this industry So with that I'll open up to any questions. I know we've we've run long, but Appreciate appreciate the opportunity to be back in front of you I hope you're as a proud of what we're doing here as we are we have millions of customers that have come through We have thousands of employees that we've launched in careers. They're buying their first homes they're putting they're buying their first cars they're putting their kids through school and They're improving themselves with with the industry that we've all helped launched here in the Commonwealth. I Just thanks Mike. I just want to take a moment On that last slide, you know the residential development update, and I know John reminded us that as a commission Anything that would pop up in the course of you know the time we've been We've all been working and waiting on this, you know anything that would come up that would say this is a no-go Has not seemed to come up, which is good news. That's right Obviously though, you know it continues to to be a project and it's not an easy project. I think we all acknowledge that But it is something that a lot of folks want to get done I know there's I thought I saw some me from wind development I certainly saw somebody from the building trades here all committed to the project the Chair and I heard the other day the mayor is committed to the project when we said what keeps you up at night He actually said 31 element making sure that got done And I'm not also not trying to steal some attempts thunder because I know he'll want to talk about that as well You know we want to see this commitment completed. It was a big reason that you know the city of Springfield selected you It was one of the you know one of the key caveats when we did your application review We know you want to get this commitment done and Move on and not have this hanging out there So all the parties still seem committed, you know, hopefully the the passing around of the MOA won't take that long Because where action is needed. It's also in saving that bill The chair and I had the chance to walk around the property the other day. There are still windows that are broken We're not too far away from another winter Which is only going to add to the condition, you know the worsening of the condition of the building as well as you know The overall cost for its redevelopment. So Keeping focused on it from all parties is I think a priority and making sure that you know this commitment gets done and You know the project can move forward because I think it also speaks to what people see when they come to downtown Springfield You know, they they see your building right next to it is this big hulking mass at night that is sitting dark But it's good to hear that you know the mayor and the city are still committed to it It's great to hear the feedback from mass housing I would assume that if win is here, they're still committed to the project in the building trades as well But you know as fast as we can wrap this up We not only want to see you again complete that commitment, but saving the building is is a timely piece of the equation as well Echo all those sentiments and to be clear it's more than just checking the box for us That's an important commitment that we made but it's really a double whammy to take a building That's an eyesore and to turn it into a vibrant market rate housing Building with ground level Retail restaurants that could then usher in the next wave of development on court square I mean court square is one of the most beautiful squares Frankly in New England and it's we got to activate it So we're committed to it We have dollars set aside for it and we have backup options But you know those are those are in distant second place to what we could collectively do with 31 ohm So we'll continue to push it as hard as we can as complex involves many parties So, you know some of the great projects, you know take time and that's what this one feels like But it feels like it's on the right trajectory and we'll let you know if we run into something That feels like a deal breaker and we've got to you know go to another direction, but I don't think anybody is just going to let That happen. That's my sense Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mike We we now Have the benefit of an update directly from the city of Springfield which we're looking forward to I'm just gonna Also mentioned to Janice in the back in terms of our timekeeping We're thinking that it might be a natural break after Springfields presentation from mr. Sheehan To have lunch rather than a break is that a good idea or should we just break Janice? Okay, that's it's about I'm just trying to monitor Our timing Okay, thank you Tim, thank you. It was nice to have the opportunity to meet with you along with Commissioner Stebbins and congratulations It's not such a new position, but relatively new positions. So, thank you. Yes, obviously I Have a great deal of history with the city of Springfield. I worked for the city of Springfield for a number of years I I've also worked with Commissioner Stebbins and I've also worked with John So it's kind of There's familiar faces and at some points it's old home week and at some points there There's a lot of new activity that's happening in the city, which is great So I thank you for the opportunity to allow me to introduce myself to the Commission I'm gonna be fairly casual with my presentation to you this morning I Think one of the Issues that when you look at the MGM casino just from its design It made a statement that it was not just going to be a gaming center that was located in Western Mass it really put forward the opportunity to look at using the Casino as an ability to really elevate and contribute to the whole redevelopment effort of downtown Springfield and It's certainly as you all know has become a hub of quality food modern entertainment and Retail venues and it's been absolutely spectacular And then you add the icing to the cake on that which is the entertainment that has come with it as well all of those experiential activities That are found in the casino are just hugely enhanced by the larger performance spaces and the venues Of Symphony Hall and the Mass Mutual Center So between the casino itself and the top tier performances being booked at those larger halls The number of people that are coming into and enjoying all of the attributes that downtown Springfield has has grown exponentially as Evidence of the that point the city's local option revenues have been have gone up over 22% totaling nearly $700,000 for the first full year of the casino operations Sure, it's up over 20% Totally an increase of more than $700,000 So is there more to do of course there is and there always will be But the underlying question in my mind and I think from the city's perspective has been answered that over the first year of Operations with regards to the casino's ability to be a substantial catalyst In the ongoing revitalization of Springfield Central Business District. It in fact has been And it's been a great addition for us and now our job going forward Is to leverage that investment? That MGM has made in Springfield to bring even more people into the downtown Increase the pace of economic development activity throughout the Central Business District and positively address which all of you have heard the persistent perceptions of Springfield is being something less than it actually is and it being There being a perception of it being unsafe We continue to address these objectives collectively and all of our interests are aligned on those The city fully understands however that What we need to do is actually work in bringing new development forward that isn't necessarily directly related to MGM and And The city's economic development approach going forward Post-casino construction is built around diversifying the land uses and the ownership interests in the Central Business District And around the casino in a manner that advances that leveraging objective Because if the architectural objectives of the casino development are to be fully realized in my mind the key The area around the casino must be equally engaging as the casino itself So you know if you're looking at a successful urban environment it requires equivalents throughout You can't have one side of the street looking Absolutely wonderful while the other side of the street is more depressed and And if our expectation is that we want the casino to be fluid in terms of allowing people to come in and go out They have to have something to go out to So that's what Springfield must address in cooperation With the development community that's seeking to benefit from the underlying area market value That the casino has established within the downtown market We've heard a lot about the 31 Elm Street project. I can tell you that we're exceedingly close on that To the point that in a discussion yesterday it was decided that In terms of the planning work that needs to be done in Anticipation of the work that the city has to do within the building that we would actually launch that work and start going forward on it So we're we're pretty bullish that we're at the end on this But you know as you know the underlying financial needs of a massively complex historic redevelopment effort it's required a matrix of patient-public-private Partnerships and all of that takes time but again, I believe we we are Quickly advancing to the the end at least with regards to the capital stack to begin the project and As you know as Bruce said the mayor and the entire city development team are very anxious To advance that critical component because we believe that it's so essential to Establishing the positive connections between the casino and symphony hall If you take that walk right now It's especially if you're going to a night performance at symphony hall It's concerning and we need to do better in terms of in ensuring that you know that development comes online and It makes that connection a very positive experience for any visitor to the casino and We need to ensure as well that all of the public infrastructure in the public park That's related to that experience are in tip-top shape So coming back to the issue of you know equalizing the the Aesthetics of the area around the casino the city's been actively working with a consortium of private investors in an effort to purchase and favorably reposition Parsels of private property in and around the casino that currently are not realizing their highest and best use Nor are they contributing in a positive way to the underlying pedestrian environment of South Main Street And I think that that's important and the the investor pool that we're we're having conversations with are is very locally based and It's a sustainable Investor pool and we're very happy that you know they have expressed an interest in in stepping up and making a commitment to Repositioning many of those properties Other than that Mike touched on the issue of housing The city continues to see private investment being made in the existing multifamily housing inventory Most notably related complete rehab of 10 Chestnut Street Which is large tower on the corner of Chestnut and State And the silver brick groups acquisition and rehab of 22 Chestnut Street And the units at Main and Taylor It should also be noted that there was an extraordinary Rehab undertaken by first resource companies and Gordon Pulsfer In the redevelopment of the Hollywood section, which is just a little bit south of the casino on South Main That redevelopment has been unbelievable Gordon and his company actually took what was a massive blight on the city and transformed it into a thriving neighborhood village I would encourage The commissioners when you have an opportunity to be out in Springfield to actually go down to that area and take a look at What work has been done? It is simply astounding And it it again gets you to a point that there's more cohesiveness along the Main Street corridor As you come south of the casino But a significant investment is being made in urban multifamily rehab Throughout the downtown and we're also seeing private sector interest in the new market rate multifamily residential development The Davenport company is advancing the first newly constructed units in the downtown in more than a couple of decades The city recently updated its market analysis Regarding downtown multifamily housing the report suggests that there's a strengthening of the market over the period in time The last time we had that done was about two years ago The city development team intends to further test that market viability going forward and to also explore the local and state incentives that may be required to actually stimulate that market sector Going forward because as many of you would know The multifamily residential development has dominated urban development across the country since the end of the recession and Springfield is a little bit behind and getting its market to a level that It's ready to take advantage of that For an urban environment in my perspective to be truly successful You need to have a housing market and a population that is economically contributing to And expanding the commercial base within the downtown It's one thing to rely on the visitor population But in order to sustain the commercial activity that's actually happening in the downtown on an ongoing basis especially on the the weeknights you need to have an activated population within the downtown and The mayor is is very aggressive on Reestablishing market rate housing within the downtown and Advancing discussions as to what the city needs to put forward in order to make that development Objective happen Finally the city's Development team in my mind needs to consider testing uses that may seem a little bit outside of the box We have Especially in the area in and around the casino We have market viability that we otherwise probably wouldn't have had from the just the regional market because we're importing a population That's not counted in our demographic numbers when you just look at the region in general So in my mind, I think you know even there's so many Comments that go on that you know retails dead retails never coming back I just came from a community down in Norwalk, Connecticut That's they're building the only urban ball in as new construction in the United States and it's 750,000 gross leasable square feet of retail and It's in the heart of the urban environment I'm clearly not saying that you know That's the type that or scale of development that we should be looking at but I do think that there is a demand Relative to retail that might be going unmet and I think we need to drill down to try and figure out at what What is the niche of that particular market? What's the scale of it that we can support? and I think there's been proven evidence that Both retail and gaming Go well together within the marketplace and But I also think you know There's support issues that you know, we could be providing as well in terms of more just Workspace Ideas that you know provide the visitor to the casino the opportunity to Check in and do you know a couple of hours worth of work while they're here? and I think we need to also you know drill down on what the region wants out of its you know primary city In western mass In the downtown and try and figure out you know what the the market realities are associated with that and how? Both the casino and the city can help to realize those so I'm happy to take any questions that you might have But it's been great to get to know or at least introduce myself to you and meet you. Thank you Thank you, that was really informative good luck with your new position Thank you, and I think You talked about a lot of the things you wanted to do, but then you said look I think we have a good investor pool to get this to happen So that was encouraging because typically that's the hard part right that is usually the hard part is finding the the the folks that are willing to invest in providing the resources To actually acquire But as I said the the pool that we're looking at or work Discussing this with I mean they're they're very local and they're very committed. So that that's also encouraging We will be hearing about in the research in the real estate report later on today Some of what you what I think you're alluding to I'm glad to hear that the city is aggressive relative to that investment in in and around the casino Some of the things that I took away from that report is that there appears to be some increasing asking rents right around But not necessarily a decrease in vacancy rates So clearly there's an opportunity there that I believe the city has a big role in trying to address and I I Wish you to continue to do that the well managed units that are in the downtown now It The top tier are going about $1,700 a month And it kind of ranges between 15 and 17 So I mean though for for Springfield those are and when you look at you know what the average Asking prices for a home in Springfield those are those are pretty big numbers in terms of rental numbers Additional questions Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate this. Don't you and I'm gonna just ask my official time keeper Do you have this is the right time for we need a break at the very least? Is this the right time for break or lunch? Five minutes And you guys stay here for at least another 35 minutes to begin with the next piece and we can break for lunch our Yeah, we'll start with item number five with respect to our research and we appreciate your patience This is a very rich conversation. We're having here in Springfield. So we're here Reconvene at at 1 p.m Thank you. Thank you We Zambia's report Thank you He's proceeding and for the record, please introduce Before we get started Group of instance in Warner of the mass council To let you know that The one That is intended to Actually work During the week doing here as well Yeah, they do work in construction report again reference Presentation that we had a MGM and from in this detail and what the economic effect And is good and leave for the mission. I also believe That to to fill in the Detention stakeholders of what the the true economic what the true social impacts of Casino gambling are in Massachusetts, that's exactly the intent of section 71 of Chapter 23k the statute When it when it was laid out to the Commission that we needed to Take a very close look And employ a robust research program To look at look at the effects of casino gambling in Massachusetts I won't go into great detail about what the statute says, but it covers a number of different very specific social Very a number of very specific economic Impacts that that we may may observe Two of those are being presented to you today. What are the economic impacts of? Building a casino in Springfield not just the Dollars and cents of what the casino costs, but what are the the additional direct and indirect? Costs that it that are induced costs that are created What is the impact on the real estate market in Springfield and let's bring some some additional data to to fill in the picture? We have today we have bark Melnick we have Henry Rinsky we have rod metamity and of course dr. Rachel Volberg To present these two reports for you I will turn it over now to Dr. Mark Melnick who will Provide a bit of an introduction to highlight some of the economic work before he turns that over to Henry Rinsky to talk about the real estate work Thank you Great, thanks for the introduction introduction mark and good afternoon madam chairperson commissioners Like I'm the director of economic and public policy research at the U.S. Donahue Institute For but you guys are all aware of our relationship in the project But I did want to take a step back a little bit and talk about the economic of the economics team in the research agenda within What we're doing and how the pieces that Henry and rod will be presenting today Fit into the larger objectives of what we're trying to do as part of the economics and fiscal research team built out of the Sigma project as you're aware the social and Economic impacts of gaming in Massachusetts program has been going on for several years as a partnership that we've been that us at the Donahue Institute have been working under the direction of folks at the School of Public Health at UMass Amherst led by Rachel to again objectively and academically study the actual impacts as we see them in Casino gaming in the state and this really unique opportunity that's presented to us in the sense of there's a new The new industry is introduced into the economy. This is rare that something like this would ever happen And to be able to pause while you're in this process and see ongoing What are the impacts of that casino being introduced into? Your economy All politics aside of what different opinions might be of the casino industry in general But it's a very unique thing to say here's an industry that did not exist here before and now it is here What does it mean both in terms of what it does to communities and public health? But then what it also does to other elements of the economy at large So it's a very unique opportunity for us to be a part of something that that's that holistic With its approach to take a high level overview of the impacts of gaming what it means in terms of job creation and taxes Examine what some of those effects might be in the community And then some of the individual effects of the relate to employment So it's interesting to see in ways which a lot of these things will dovetail and touch each other Because a lot of the things that we heard in the earlier presentations are very relatable to the things obviously that what we are doing but in our from our Reach is trying to look at the very holistic view of what this means to the residents of the Commonwealth and what it means to The host and surrounding communities so And while we're featuring today in this presentation Two particular parts of work. I should note that there's a large team of folks who do different things on relate to the social and economic impacts of gaming on the economic side alone There's eight researchers most of which are housed at the Donahue Institute But partnerships with folks like Henry and and Mark Nichols at the University of Nevada Reno give us a very Broad reach and looking at all the different things that impact economic and fiscal Just in terms of an overview what we're trying to do is measure and determine the economic and fiscal impacts of casino facilities at the local Regional and state level we're let leveraging both a combination of secondary data all the census products that are available to folks American Community Survey Bureau of Labor Statistics data those kinds of things As well as primary data collection and one of the unique things about Again the mandate out of the research agenda is our ability to work directly with the vendors Actually, we would work directly with the licensees to collect data on site To get data directly from the casinos But then also to do surveys with new employees or intercept with patrons to answer questions that secondary data wouldn't allow us to do But look at things like business dynamics labor market conditions government spending things in the real estate and so on Our analytical framework has evolved over time We think of our work kind of fitting into three buckets One looking at economic and community impacts and what it means specifically to the host and surrounding communities on the Commonwealth at large We look at casino impacts and what are the the impacts are directly related to? activities at the casino and the related spin-off effects of those and then we've have this Bucket that we haven't done yet, which we are calling special topics right now But as the project evolves over time We anticipate being able to take deeper dives into different topical areas that as we are in a fully operational casino market Other kinds of questions will will uncover themselves as things that we may want to study further and I'll touch on that in a second So in terms of the economic and community impacts, this has been manifested mainly in our things like the host community profiles and the Community comparison analysis but looking at again how characteristics in communities are changing on the ground be it local business indicators residential indicators Labor force indicators real estate those kinds of things But what are the characteristics of community and how are they changing over time on the casino impact? Oh, sorry wrong button on casino impacts What we're looking at are the different characteristics again that are directly related to the casinos and the related