Casino Sept 08 P22-26 8/21/08 12:55 pm Page 26
PETER BROOKS INTERVIEW
should provide more opportunities for people to
spend money on the site when they finish visiting the
exhibitions and so on.
I think at this time, expanding the NEC offering
to more of a MICE offering has, in business terms,
to be the right thing to do. That marries with the
second point which is that, under the 2005 Act
and the Casino Advisory Panel process, the
government has passed legislation allocating 16
new licenses; Solihull is one of those, and so
Solihull has the ability to allocate or award a large
casino license. Given the keen interest on the part
of the NEC, it has always seemed to us to be a very
attractive site for a new casino, and a new casino is
going to come to Solihull. But the fact is, it will be
a very different sort of overall offering to any
casino that has been in the UK hitherto, and it is
going to happen. Will it have an impact on existing
casinos? Yes, it will. The existing industry has been
very consistent through the process in saying that
what the government has done is to create a non-
Above: The Wellington between the two, as far as I can tell, so the stories level playing field. The new casinos will have
Room at Crockfords
about ‘will all of the new casinos get built?’, it’s a privileges which the existing casino estate does not
very good question. You can be sure of two things; have and we've said throughout the process that
one, the chances are that they won’t all get built this will have an impact on them. We have to
and two, they will certainly be very much more accept that it's happening but it's not something
modest than anybody imagined. It’s very easy to be we've welcomed because it doesn't seem, to use a
dramatic about this stuff, the fact is that we as an horrible phrase, to be especially 'fair'.
industry received a huge hit with tax, get on with There's going to be a new casino in Solihull
it, people didn’t understand in my view what the assuming that the local authority decides to proceed.
wider ramifications are, and those ramifications I'm going to make the assumption that it will take
include what gets built under the 05 act will be that decision, and so from my perspective –
very much more modest than would have been the particularly as I think the NEC is a great partner to
case. You could simply say that it was a Treasury be with and it's a great site – I'd much rather we were
grab of local authority regeneration funding, its doing it than someone else.
one way of putting it. It’s changed the landscape.
The next step in the process is that the DCMS has CI: What do you think is the potential for local
to publish the rules of the competitions so there will customers in the area? What's the catchment area
be a hiatus until that happens and then the local immediately around the NEC?
authorities will be up and running and I’m sure the PB: We've looked at a range of potential
government will be quite delighted to pass the baton 'catchment areas'; the NEC has 2-4 million visitors
to the local authorities because there are no votes in a year, so that's one. It's a huge transport hub, so
casinos. But then you get to the stage where, if you you can take a broad view of the catchment area,
look at where some of these casinos are – Skegness, but as you rightly say there's a local population.
Stranraer, even Wolverhampton… What began life Part of the answer to your question will be a
with a great hurrah and it was going to raise millions function of how successful we are in developing the
of pounds for local communities, the landscape is very attractions I've been talking about. Our
very different to that now. concept includes a food court, a 4 star hotel,
restaurants, bars and a quality spa as well as
CI: It was recently announced Genting Stanley additional conferencing facilities and we're looking
will be working with the NEC on a new at creating another major tourist attraction. The
development... Birmingham's well stocked with hotel element starts with a four-star hotel with
casinos, what are you going to bring that's possibly a small five-star hotel element; and in
different? phase two it could mean an additional three-star
PB: A fair question. The first aspect is that the NEC element. When you add those up before you get to
is a very important employer and enterprise in the the casino we think it will be a genuine tourist
region, but by common consent what it lacks on-site destination attraction and a local attraction.
is attractions to keep visitors on site when they're We've thought at least as much about the local
finished going to exhibitions. Partly with that in area in terms of what we can do to create jobs, and
mind, the NEC is itself investing a large amount of we're quite optimistic about what we'll be able to do
money in the arena and those entertainment aspects, both in terms of the numbers of jobs and on our
but it would benefit from having other features. It's ability to offer training and development so those
been a long-held ambition on their part that they jobs can be offered locally.
26 SEPTEMBER 2008
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