Understanding the Chinese millennial leisure traveler BY ROBERTO COPPOLA
I t was a classic humid June night in downtown Cleveland , but the scene was anything but typical . The clock had struck midnight at about the same time streams of mostly ecstatic Cavs fans began pouring out of “ The Q ” ( Quicken Loans Arena ). Native son Lebron James had just put the finishing touches on a brilliant performance that had propelled Cleveland to a 2-games-to-1 lead in the NBA Finals .
The many indoor-outdoor bars that surround the arena quickly swelled beyond capacity , while seemingly endless waves of millennials , adorned in Cleveland Cavaliers gear , just kept coming . There was singing and dancing in the streets — much of it influenced by approachable inebriation . For a city beaten down by decades of hard times , the guarded optimism hanging in the air was as blissful as it was distinctly foreign .
For those not inclined to partake in what had the potential to slip into a display of marked public lunacy , but were also not quite ready to call it a night , there was only one other obvious available option : the Horseshoe Casino , located just across the street from the arena .
The Cavs are owned by magnate Dan Gilbert , who made much of his $ 5 billion fortune via his ownership of Quicken Loans . Gilbert ’ s entrepreneurial success with that not-so-sexy form of commerce allowed him the opportunity to get into two comparatively flashy entertainment businesses vis-à-vis sports and gambling . In Cleveland , Gilbert ’ s two flagship busi-
18 CASINO DESIGN 2015