On January 6, Eagle Summit at Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin
Dells closed its doors for the last time.
Eagle Summit is an 18+ casino which offers a full range of
class ll games and much more.
Initially, planners wanted to use the space as a poker room.
Executive Management decided poker was not very profitable, so the decision to
put Eagle Summit in that space was ideal at that time.
“To their defense, there was no historical data that they
could draw from at the time. They made some estimates, but unfortunately, those
estimates were not lived up too,” said John Phillip, current Executive Manager
at Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells.
“The planning was correct, the decision to do it was
correct,” said John. “An old mentor told me, ‘try new stuff John, but if you
fail, fail fast,’ and sometimes the best projections in the world don’t pan
out, which is the case for Eagle Summit.”
Currently, a four-month escalator project will be happening
at the Wisconsin Dells location. This planned preventative maintenance project
limits upward mobility to the second floor of the building. Many of the
cliental are seniors, which could cause limitations in their ability to access
Eagle Summit. The disruption to the floor would cause a loss that would be
precipitous, which led to the decision to close Eagle Summit before the project
started.
“Closure was not taken lightly, and we did our homework.
Unfortunately, we were not profitable in that space, and we really worked hard
with marketing efforts,” said John.
There is currently not a clear plan for the space. Ideas for putting poker, a restaurant, a night
club, and even sports betting when it is legal have been discussed.
“There are all kinds of ideas floating around out there, but
none of them are home runs yet,” said John.
There are no job losses over this decision, and all the Team
Members will be working down on the main floor. There are many positions open,
and everyone was absorbed down into the main floor workspace.
“We are very concerned and aware at managing resources on
behalf of our stakeholders. We are
looking out for the whole, and we listen to their concerns, but the fact of the
matter is that we have to manage at the Enterprise level. We take that very
seriously,” said Wendy K. White Eagle, Executive Director of Business.
“The train is out of the station, and we all have a
responsibility. People are making decisions every day, whether they are on the
train or not. We are moving and excited about the positive growth that is going
to happen on behalf of our Tribal Members and future generations.”
“In conclusion we wanted it to work, we tried to make it
work. We ran promotions and marketing to try and get it to work,” said John. “I
have worked in the casino business for a long time, and I have yet in my career
to see an upper-level gaming space do well.”