Today We Learned: CityCenter is Actually “Aria Campus”
‘Tis the season for WTF.
Today we learned CityCenter, at some point, was renamed “Aria Campus.”
Presumably, because the name “CityCenter” was deemed just too damn sexy.
We thought the name “Aria Campus” might just be a term used internally at MGM Resorts, but nope, it’s out there in the wild. We just missed the change entirely, and we claim to know everything.
On the Aria Web site, it says: “Described as a city within-a-city, the Aria Campus (formerly known as CityCenter) [is] comprised of Aria Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa.”
Which is weird, because CityCenter covered not only Aria and Vdara, but also the Waldorf Astoria, Veer Towers and Shops at Crystals.
The Internet believes the name change happened in 2019, yet we had never heard about this alleged rebrand until today in a post from a popular Twitter account marking the birthday of Aria, which opened on Dec. 16, 2009.
OTD 2009 Aria Resort and Casino opened in CityCenter (now Aria Campus) on the #LasVegas Strip. It was named Aria due to its placement as the central feature of CityCenter, as arias are focal points in operas. pic.twitter.com/hOd5Rh3voU
— _GrandpaD__Old School Vegas✨ (@_GrandPaD) December 16, 2024
The weird thing is nobody calls CityCenter the Aria Campus, just like nobody calls the Las Vegas airport “Harry Reid International Airport” and nobody calls David Copperfield “not a sexual predator.”
To help avoid confusion, do not ask your rideshare or taxi driver to take you to the Aria Campus. Please ask them to deliver you to the individual destination within the Aria Campus. Sorry, we are never getting used to that.
Here are some shorthand ways of referring to the entities within the Aria Campus.
Aria: “The one that started the trend of Las Vegas casinos looking like business parks.”
Vdara: “The one without a casino, so who cares?”
Waldorf Astoria: “There’s a Whataburger and some terrible pizza out front if you’re into that.”
Shops at Crystals: “You can’t afford it.”
Veer Towers: “The condos that look shitfaced.”
We hope that helps!
Here’s a nuanced and in-depth story about CityCenter, so naturally, we didn’t read all of it.
Thanks to the miracle of A.I., two robots are happy to provide us with an audio overview of the CityCenter, sorry, Aria Campus, saga.
Aria Campus is a fascinating part of Las Vegas history, including Harmon Tower, the hotel tower that was dismantled before it ever opened. Read more. Yes, you have to read, but it’s mostly pictures, so you’ll live.
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