Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Joins Times Square Casino Bid Opposed By Broadway Producers

deadline.com:

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation entertainment agency is betting that Times Square needs a Caesars Palace casino, and has joined Caesars Entertainment and Manhattan realty company SL Green in their bid to make it happen. “New York is a beacon, the epicenter of culture,” says Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter in a statement posted on Roc Nation’s website. “We have the opportunity to create a destination at the heart of Times Square, the true crossroads of the world.

My partnership with SL Green and Caesars, this coalition, has all the promise and commitment to economic opportunity, growth and enrichment for the community, and everyone who visits the Empire State.” The partnership is hoping to build a “state-of-the-art gaming facility” at 1515 Broadway – the same building that houses Disney’s long-running musical The Lion King – after the state’s gaming authorities determine possible gaming licenses and locations sometime next year, at the earliest.

The coalition, the statement says, “brings together three best-in-class organizations – New York’s largest owner of office properties, the nation’s leading gaming company and the world’s preeminent entertainment company – to deliver a crucial plan for the world’s top tourist destination.” The casino proposal was detailed in October, and was quickly and vehemently opposed by The Broadway League, the trade organization representing theater owners and producers, an opposition at odds with the pro-casino stance taken by the Actors’ Equity Association and other labor unions.

The League reiterated its casino opposition in a letter to its members last month, arguing that a casino would not bring in out-of-towners (“With the exception of Las Vegas, casinos don’t draw tourists and rely heavily on local