The Mirage has announced severance packages and job fairs for its staff after announcing its official July closure date. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Mirage closing July 2024

The Mirage Hotel & Casino has announced its official 2024 closure date while also sharing information on severance packages for staff.

The Mirage took to X Wednesday to state its 34-year reign on The Strip will end July 17:

The closure will allow the incoming operator of the VICI Properties-owned land to remake the resort into Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas by spring 2027.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Hard Rock business arm bought the operating rights for almost $1.1bn from MGM Resorts in December 2022. Back then, however, the initial agreement was for Hard Rock to retain the 3,000+ employees.

Instead, Wednesday’s announcement came with news of layoffs for 3,300 Mirage staff, “including 140 Day One employees.” The resort is set to financially compensate affected staff with approximately $80m in severance pay.  

Addressing the job cuts

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Mirage’s President Joe Lupo broke the news to employees Wednesday morning “in a town hall-style meeting.”

To put a positive spin on the coming end of The Mirage, Lupo expressed encouragement over the future of Sin City and the role Hard Rock and Seminole Tribe can play in developing and boosting the Vegas market. He acknowledged, however, that:

today is a tough day for a lot of people.”

Lupo added the well-being of affected staff was a priority, to which end, the exec informed the meeting, his staff had established a resource center at The Mirage. This center in the former Mirage buffet area will feature job fairs that Lupo said would give “almost every property” in Las Vegas the chance to hire the thousands of available staff.

The Mirage President also spoke of potential job opportunities for Mirage staff at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, as well as at the Tribe’s resorts in Virginia, Cincinnati, and Northern Indiana. “We expect many great opportunities, in Las Vegas and at the Hard Rocks, to present to employees,” Lupo said.

Culinary Local 226 represents around 1,700 of The Mirage staff heading for the exit. According to the LVRJ, the union stated: “recent contract negotiations included provisions for a redevelopment and closure.”

Culinary-backed Mirage staff will get “$2,000 for every year of service, plus pension and health benefits for six months.” Alternatively, if any staff wish to retain their seniority rights, their severance packages will reflect lesser amounts.

End of an era

The Mirage’s closure on July 17 is total. Instead of a “phased-in” restart, Lupo stated, a full shutdown will take place until the resort reopens as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas at the end of May 2027.

I shall miss every moment you gave me”

Tributes to The Mirage have poured in on X. Platform user Adam Goldberg spoke fondly of “playing 7 card stud with a true Texan in the poker room” suite upgrades and seeing The Beatles musical Love. “I shall miss every moment you gave me,” he stated. “Thank you for all of them.”

While plans for the Hard Rock Vegas property are still in the rendering stage, the new-look Strip attraction will include 25 restaurants and a theater seating 5,000. The future skyline of the Las Vegas Strip will be dominated by a 660-foot-tall hotel tower shaped as giant guitars standing back-to-back, after Clark County officials gave their nod to the planning designs at a March 2023 meeting.