What Revel and Neverland Have In Common

Photo: The Pinnacle List.

Today is the last day to put in your bid to buy Revel, Atlantic City’s doomed casino, so fire up that land line. As for Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Olivos, California, it looks like that’s going to be on the market too since the maintenance costs have gotten out of control. While they may seem like rather disparate properties, they do have some things in common — the first and foremost being that whoever/whichever company acquires Revel and Neverland will have deep pockets and big dreams. Here’s our Lucky 7 list of other parallels between the properties.

Lucky 7 Reveland

1. Empty, echoing sprawl. Neverland is more than 2,500 acres; Revel is about 2,700.
2. Access to child-friendly entertainment. Neverland was characterized by USA Today in 2003 as “a mini-Disneyland complete with amusement park rides, movie theater, arcade, zoo and its own railroad system.” Revel, too, is in proximity to all of that, especially if you consider a tram on the boardwalk a railroad system.

3. Delusional management with poor judgment. ’Nuff said.
4. Worth. A lot, in both cases. Neverland: At least $50 million. Revel: $2 billion.
5. Subjective problem of inconvenience. Forbes says of Neverland: “The area is nowhere near an interstate, and its narrow mountain roads aren’t conducive to accommodating hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.” Of Revel, skeptics have said from the beginning that it was too far down the boardwalk to be convenient. Are people really that lazy? Perhaps.
6. Proximity to water. Neverland has a four-acre lake, streams, pools, and fountains. Revel is quite near something called an ocean.
7. The smell of sweets. A visitor to Neverland told USA Today that Neverland “smells like cinnamon rolls, vanilla and candy.” The Jersey Shore smells like funnel cake, fudge and poorly designed t-shirts.

• Revel Casino’s Future Will Become A Lot Clearer This Week [CBS Philly]
• Michael Jackson’s Neverland Is About To Be Sold [Forbes]