Latest All Net Resort News Conference Continues Decade-Long Cavalcade of Idiocy

By Scott Roeben, on October 20 2022
5 min read 22 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Hotels Las Vegas WTF

Here we go again.

The definition of insanity is to do (or believe) the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

A new announcement of “confirmed” funding for All Net Resort & Arena only serves to confirm what we’ve been  saying all along: Many Las Vegas news outlets and politicians are certifiably insane.

All Net has, once again, trotted out new renderings to prove, once and for all it’s fully funded and construction could begin any second now. Or, as we refer to it: Same horseshit, different day.

It’s not easy to squeeze all the “not happening” into one image, but All Net has nailed it. Again.

All Net whipped up a new frenzy of breathless media coverage with a news conference on Oct. 19, 2022, stating it has $6 billion in funding for a spectacular resort which will supposedly feature an arena, a pair of luxury hotels, a convention center, a leprechaun pickle ball court and chupacabra sanctuary.

We added those things at the end, because, trust us, they’re all equally likely to happen.

If this whole dog and pony show sounds familiar, it’s because All Net has done this same crap many, many times over the last decade.

We’d say it’s laughable, but every time All Net holds a news conference, local media shows up, then robotically reports everything they’re told. There are rarely any  tough (or easy, for that matter) questions asked, and no real degree of skepticism exhibited.

As recently as Feb. 2022, the highly inquisitive and thorough Las Vegas Review-Journal reported financing of All Net by someone named Arthur “AJ” Lewis of Active Capital Holdings. We shared this story, “Report of All Net Resort Financing Is Steaming Pile of B.S.”

Now, it seems, All Net’s CEO Jackie Robinson is saying that wasn’t a thing after all. This, though, is definitely a thing! Oy.

“Far-fetched” doesn’t quite do it justice.

It doesn’t help that at least one elected official, Commissioner Tick Segerblom, continues to perpetuate this nonsense. We honestly can’t tell if Segerblom is naive, slow, gullible or all three. It’s possible he’s just eternally optimistic, a quality upon which Las Vegas was built.

It’s also possible Segerblom, and many others, are dazed and confused whenever somebody says they could bring an NBA team (or any sports team, really) to Las Vegas. The ensuing euphoria appears to impair cognitive ability. It can even result in government officials handing over millions of dollars in tax money to rich people to help make them richer. Looking at you, Allegiant Stadium.

Segerblom is fully on Team All Net, “excited” to confirm the project should be completed by the end of 2025.

In an interview with Channel 8, Segerblom said, “As far as I can tell, talking to people, here and other people places, the money is there.” So, obviously, definitely 100% confirmed.

In a demonstration of its fiscal responsibility, All Net appears to be buying its renderings in bulk.

The only problem here is there is zero evidence any of the parties involved have the funds or wherewithal to make this project happen.

A new player has entered the fray, Todd Owen, director of Clearwater Perpetual Master Trust, which has been described as “a Wyoming-based family office investment fund out of California.”

We’ve yet to find anyone in the realm of resorts, construction, finance, investment or family offices who has heard of this person or his company. We found a Web page about him, but it definitely doesn’t scream credibility or “we’ve financed billion-dollar resort projects before.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal did some digging, and by that we mean took the word of “an attorney for the project,” who said the funding package for the venture  is all set.

It all sounds awesome, except given the history of this project, none of it is going to come to fruition. None of it.

The smoke and mirrors are just out of the frame of this rendering.

The only real development in the last round of whimsical announcements is the unveiling of a Web site. Oh, and a Twitter account. So, we can say with certainty, All Net has the funding to start a Twitter account.

On the Web site, All Net reveals its roster of powerhouse executives.

Project President Blake Cumbers used to work for Harrah’s Entertainment and Boyd Gaming, so that’s something.

While we’re sure these executives are nice people, there’s no sense the team assembled has the capacity to do what they say they’re going to do. It’s a plug-and-play P.R. move, as is this entire seemingly endless charade.

Ultimately, All Net is nothing more than wishful thinking. There’s nothing wrong with having high hopes, as long as that context is provided and news of funding isn’t reported as actually existing.

At All Net Resort & Arena, hogwash is a renewable resource.

Beyond the lack of alleged funding, there’s a bottomless chasm of WTF that hasn’t been addressed at all.

For  example, does Las Vegas need another arena? It’s a rhetorical question. It doesn’t.

With thousands of rooms coming online at Resorts World, and thousands more at Fontainebleau in 2023, is there any company or individual who’s going to wager $6 billion on a project nobody we’ve heard from believes could be profitable?

Nobody’s talking about the fact more equity (the technical term for cashy-cash) is needed than ever due to rising interest rates (making things like construction loans more expensive and profitability much more challenging). Nobody’s talking about the fact All Net hasn’t talked about who its contractor is, or a million other items that could lend some credence to All Net’s outlandish claims.

Nobody’s talking about the sheer absurdity of opening a new resort on the Las Vegas Strip without a casino. You read that correctly. All Net won’t have a casino.

None of it makes sense, other than as something theoretically possible, but practically impossible.

How many more stories do we have to write calling bullshit on All Net and its clearly hopeful but out-of-touch CEO Jackie Robinson?

Robinson’s news conferences serve the sole purpose of giving the illusion something’s happening at All Net. He’s been doing this for years, including once bringing dozens of trucks to his empty site to assure everyone the project was an absolute go. That was five years ago.

All Net Arena
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

Throughout the years, Jackie Robinson has claimed he was being funded by Credit Suisse, the Bank of Qater and Korean backers. In each case, funding was a done deal, “signed, sealed and delivered.”

Somehow, Robinson continues to convince otherwise reasonable people this time is different. It’s not.

It’s all a game, and we’re all losing because when we can’t tell the difference between reality from fantasy, even when something’s clearly a fantasy, we’re in trouble. As a town. As a culture. As a world.

Yeah, we went there.

We’d love to see a new Las Vegas resort as much, or more, than anybody. But this isn’t that. All Net Resort & Arena is a sham, no more real than Bleutech Park or Alon or the Atari Hotel or Moon Resort (definitely happening in 2026!) or any of the too-many-to-count projects announced in Las Vegas that never happened.

It’s time to stop the madness. Enough with the bunk, the hooey, the folly. Let’s not give these snake oil salespersons a platform to try and sucker investors into this farcical flight of fancy. Which we’re pretty sure we just did by writing this story, but you know what we mean.

The second any of it is believable, tangible, verifiable, we’ll join the All Net cheerleading squad and do a herkie. Until then, enough is enough. We need to put All Net out of its misery and move on to a project that could actually come to pass.

Update (10/27/22): The lunacy continues with a straight-faced story by local Las Vegas media that the same group involved with All Net will fund the Moulin Rouge project. It is becoming increasingly difficult to know who is deserving of more ridicule: The idiots foisting this fantasy or the clueless media outlets passing along the delusional dipshittery like it’s real. It’s not real. An alleged company called Trypto Business Solutions LLC, which claims to be involved in funding All Net (it’s not), also says it will fund Moulin Rouge. It won’t. Please make this stop. It’s embarrassing to everyone involved. Journalists, please start journalisming. Stat.

 

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