Still Worried About The Vegas: More evidence that the Vegas bubble has burst. Apparently Hooter's is sagging (heh-heh). According to my peeps over at Hotel Chatter, Hooter's Hotel and Casino is struggling and looking for a buyer. Faced with anemic revenues the current owners are running for cover. This doesn't surprise me. Hooter's is a bit off the beaten path, and more importantly, it was a flawed concept from the start. Hooter's runs restaurants and a small airline. They have succeeded by taking mundane, unpleasant experiences such as eating deep fried pub food or getting packed into coach seats like sardines and distracted their customers from their discomfort by surrounding them with flirty women of ample cleavage. This is their core product. Essentially, Hooter's tag line could be, "You have an ugly task before you, so here are some boobs to take the edge off."

Problem one is that visiting Las Vegas isn't what you'd call unpleasant, even in a slightly sub-standard property like Hooter's. So you've removed one half of the equation -- the ugly task part -- from the start. Problem two is that large-breasted women falling out their shirts are already in oversupply in Vegas. The whole business model collapses (so to speak). So much for your competitive advantage.

Hooter's is a minor loss, though. The biggest blow to the future is the total breakdown of the "Harmon Corridor." Harmon Ave. is a main thoroughfare that runs perpendicular to Las Vegas Blvd. (The Strip). It was going to be the next big area of hotel and casino expansion. The Clooney's late project, Las Ramblas, was going in there as was the new W hotel. Clooney's project famously fell apart when he and his partners realized that while it would be cool to say you own a hotel in Vegas, the day-to-day running of it and making a profit were actually hard work. So they folded and sold the property to the Starwood guys so they could have an even bigger W hotel. Now the Starwood guys have packed it in and the whole dream of Harmon Corridor is in the crapper.

Actually, the more I think about it, this may be a positive development. One thing I previously identified as a red flag for Vegas' future was overbuilding. Maybe it's good the Harmon projects fell apart before they had actual buildings to worry about. I'm still worried about the future, but I have more hope now for a gentle landing than an outright crash.