RELATED LINKS:

• Our partner site WILDABOUTAZCATS.com shows YouTube video of Marnell lighting the nation’s tallest Christmas tree and displays top salaries of former UA athletes
• The M Resort targets a young audience with its catchy Web site
• The Las Vegas Sun ran a detailed Q & A with Marnell last February before he opened the M Resort
• Marnell saves money by being involved with most of the operations at the M Resort

LAS VEGAS — Anthony Marnell III does not come across as a bigwig, but he is as successful as it gets in this city of high rollers. Marnell, the son of Las Vegas developer Anthony Marnell II (who opened the Rio Casino and Hotel in 1986), is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the M Resort Spa and Casino, a $1 billion gaming property on the outskirts of the city.

When Marnell, only 36, lit the tallest Christmas tree in the country at the M Resort two months ago, he announced the event wearing blue jeans. He did not sound like a showman. He instead spoke with an even tone.

Marnell could have used hyperbole before lighting the tree, saying something like, “And let this extremely tall tree be an example of how grand the M Resort will be in Las Vegas.” Instead, Marnell dedicated the tree to the children in the Las Vegas area whose families could not afford a tree for their home.

“They can come here whenever they want,” he said.

It’s appropriate that one of Marnell’s good friends from his baseball-playing days at Arizona from 1993-1995 is Rich Tomey, son of a humble man — former UA football coach Dick Tomey. Rich Tomey and a handful of Marnell’s former Wildcat teammates took part in the M Resort’s grand opening festivities last March.

When I talked to Marnell last week, he spoke about about carrying on his business with a “Bear Down attitude” of which was instilled in him by former UA baseball coach Jerry Stitt. Marnell was a catcher with the Cats when Stitt was an assistant coach to Jerry Kindall. He was recruited by Stitt out of Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High School.

Marnell signed with Stitt instead of being swayed to a pro contract by the Baltimore Orioles, which drafted him after his senior season.

“Jerry Stitt was a very big influence on me there and what he taught me is significant to me now,” Marnell said. “I don’t communicate with him all that much, but he left me with a lot of things. He gave all of us an idea of that Bear Down attitude and it’s carried over to my life.

“He told to us to never give up, to never quit. We should try to be excellent. We should strive for perfection although perfection is impossible. Just the idea of working hard toward that goal is very important.”

As any successful executive, Marnell is goal driven and never content. The Las Vegas casino market is highly competitive. The M Resort competes for business with not only the mega casinos on The Strip, but also the numerous neighborhood casinos throughout area, including those owned by Station Casinos and Coast Casinos. Furthermore, MGM Mirage’s 76-acre CityCenter parcel, which includes hotels and high-rise residential, retail, dining and entertainment venues, opened in December on the Strip with a price tag of $9.1 billion.

In order to stay on top of the game, Marnell is open to innovative ideas. One example is staging a live cooking show adjacent to the resort’s Studio B buffet. Another is the M Resort’s mobile gaming tablet called the eDeck, which allows users to wager “in-running” during a sporting event. The device allows a person to make a pick from most anywhere on the property on whether the Saints, for example, will get a first down on the next play or if Shaquille O’Neal will make his next free throw.

This is a sports gambler’s dream: Laying by the pool with what amounts to a cell phone wagering on games and plays. The Venetian and Palazzo on the Strip are the only other casinos in Las Vegas that feature this device. Researchers forecast that mobile betting will increase to $9 billion this year after being only a $1 billion venture three years ago.

Media reports in Las Vegas estimated that the M Resort made at least $10 million from Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIV, partly from the use of this device. Despite such a promising development for his 400-room, 90,000 square foot casino, Marnell is trying to make his resort survive through the failed economy, which has hit Las Vegas as much as any city in the country.

“We’re not hitting it out of the park, but we’re not striking out either,” Marnell said. “I say this a lot to the local media: Survival right now is a measure of our success.”

Toward the end of last year, gaming revenue on the Las Vegas Strip was at $426.3 million, down 10.3 percent from 2008. Nevada’s casinos have suffered through two years of declining revenue. With an unemployment rate of 13.1 percent in Las Vegas, the locals do not have the discretionary income to spend at the casinos. Nevada has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation at 13 percent, trailing only Michigan, which has been wracked by the collapse of the U.S. auto industry and is reporting an unemployment rate of 14.6 percent.

“This is a time when we have to dig down really deep,” Marnell told me. “We have to give twice as much of our effort and play smarter, play leaner … basically, play to win. Those are the things we’re trying to do here.

“We’re trying to take really good care of our team and practice like we’re going to play. The economy right now is like being in the batter’s box and you never know what pitch you’re going to get. You have to make adjustments. You have to study the quarterly reports and make adjustments almost daily to give yourself a better opportunity.”

Marnell must study those quarterly reports four times over.

He owns three businesses in the Las Vegas area other than the M Resort. He is the chairman of Saddle West Investors, LLC (which includes the Saddle West Hotel-Casino in Pahrump, Nevada); chief executive officer of Aces High Management, LLC (an ownership group that controls the interests of casinos such as the Saddle West); and the founder and chairman of TRIRIGA, Inc., a software company that provides Web-based project management solutions for a variety of business functions.

Greg Wells, a teammate of Marnell’s at Arizona, is an influential business partner with Marnell. Wells, a former outfielder with the Wildcats, manages the financing of all the Marnell family of companies’ real estate and gaming activities, including Laughlin (Nevada) properties, Saddle West, M Holdings, and most recently the construction financing of The M Resort.

“The friendships I made at Arizona made my time there worth it,” said Marnell, whose career with the Wildcats was beset by shoulder injuries.

The opening ceremony of the M Resort was similar to a UA baseball reunion. Along with Tomey and Wells, joining Marnell for the festivities were his former Wildcat teammates Chris Gump, Jason Bates, Seth Adams, John Tejcek and Clay Crossan. Marnell said he also occasionally talks with ex-teammates Ben White and Matt Lake.

Those teams were closely knit and they were also loose because of guys like Gump, who used a skateboard to get to his classes. His demeanor was a departure from the straight-laced nature of Kindall.

“Gump is still a free-spirited guy,” Marnell said with a laugh. “It’s great to see that the world has not changed him one bit.

“Overall, I have some very fond memories of those guys. I love that university and the Tucson community. Some of my best days were at Arizona and some of my worst days were at Arizona. I think I became better because of that, especially with how Coach Stitt impacted my life.”

The challenges Marnell faces as a CEO in a down economy seem tame compared to the tribulations he encountered while playing at Arizona. Marnell, who showed power while playing for Bishop Gorman, rarely found a consistent spot in a potent UA lineup — he had only 130 at-bats in his three years with the Cats –because of his injuries. He left the UA in the middle of his junior season in 1995 to rehabilitate his shoulders with the hopes of a professional career.

The Padres drafted Marnell in the 22nd round that summer. Marnell missed much of his first season in Class A with an eye disorder that prohibited him from seeing well at night, something that went undetected at Bishop Gorman and Arizona because the schools did not play many night games.

Doctors outfitted him with tinted contact lenses and Marnell gave the minor leagues one more try in 1996. He decided to leave the game because of the lingering shoulder injuries. He enrolled in UNLV’s College of Hospitality Administration, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree.

“The Padres’ doctors told me that I risked substantial damage to my shoulders if I tried to continue playing,” Marnell said. “Ironically, I’m having surgery on one of my shoulders (this) week. About 10 years ago, the shoulder started to deteriorate. The pain is something I’ve had to cope with.”

Marnell is not expected to be sidelined long following the surgery. He has a hands-on approach to running his businesses. However, while he recuperates, Marnell will likely check the Internet for updates regarding Arizona’s baseball team.

“I check the school Web site as often as I can to see how they’re doing,” Marnell said. “Obviously, there has been some coaching turnover (with Andy Lopez now coaching the Cats), but it seems like the program is faring well. I know it’s been a while since I’ve been there, but that program is still special to me.”

The Arizona baseball program honored this weekend the school’s 50th anniversary team from 1960 and the 25th anniversary team from 1985, as well as the 1980 NCAA Championship team for Alumni Weekend. The Wildcats open their 2010 season on Feb. 19 with a three-game series against Utah Valley.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 12:32 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Anthony Marnell, Chris Gump, Jerry Stitt, Rich Tomey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.