Pirates, sirens, circus performers: Treasure Island celebrates 30 years on Strip

Thirty years ago, Treasure Island welcomed guests with a bang.

Mirage Resorts developer Steve Wynn wanted to capture the imaginative spirit of Las Vegas through his newest resort, a pirate theme inspired by the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. He welcomed gamblers to his property on Oct. 26, and on Oct. 27 a grand opening ceremony tied the new resort to future development on the Strip when cannons from the pirate ships went off at the same time as the demolition of the Dunes hotel, the spot that would later become the Bellagio.

The week-one spectacle set the tone for what Treasure Island would be for years to come. The resort celebrated its 30th anniversary on Thursday. Its opening in 1993 was part of a boom in growth on the Strip as operators tried to cast a wider net of visitors that reached beyond gamblers.

Alan Feldman, a former gaming executive who was vice president of public relations for Mirage Resorts when Treasure Island opened, said while the resort was originally viewed as a family-friendly option on the Strip, it wasn’t only meant to be that.

“The story kind of got away from us a bit,” Feldman said. “That was really when we first started seeing all of this, ‘Vegas is for families.’ I’m doing interviews practically every day in the month leading up to and just after the opening saying, ‘No, no, no. Vegas isn’t for kids. It’s for the kids in all of us – adults. Not for children.’ But it was one of those stories that was just too good to tell.”

‘Lost in a fantasy experience’

Still, the idea for Treasure Island came out of the child-like fascination of a pirate adventure. Wynn and project designers for Mirage Resorts, including Joel Bergman and Jon Jerde, were inspired by an idea shared by set designer John Napier, Feldman said. After working on a pirate-themed show, he sketched out a little pirate village and sent it to the Mirage team.

“That just instantly captured the imagination of the architects and the designers,” Feldman said. “All of us were partially captured because ‘Treasure Island’ was a significant work of literature in our lives. But also because of the whole idea of getting lost in a fantasy experience for some time. That’s fundamentally what Las Vegas is about.”

Central to the pirate village was a free show called “Battle of Buccaneer Bay.” Its climax was a raging battle between a pirate group and a British ship on the artificial lagoon that sat in front of the property. Booming cannons, pyrotechnics and stunt work were staples of the 11-minute show, which played multiple times each evening.

But free entertainment was not the only success at Treasure Island. Cirque du Soleil opened “Mystère” in December 1993, and it remains the longest-running Cirque show on the Strip.

Feldman said the innovative acrobatic show — with a “small but extremely efficient convention space” — was part of the resort’s mission to generate even revenue between gaming and nongaming segments.

Eric Grilly, president of Cirque du Soleil’s resident shows division, said founder Guy Laliberté conceptualized the show as something that was like “a flower growing in the desert.”

“He took the concept of a desolate landscape and decorated it with color, whimsy, and unbelievable elements of human performance to create a timeless resident show for all ages,” Grilly said in an emailed statement.

Changing owners, changed approaches

MGM Resorts International, then known as MGM Grand Inc., bought Mirage Resorts in 2000, and revamps to the property came soon after. The new operators wanted to bring in a young adult crowd to rival the Hard Rock Hotel and Palms.

The new company — then called MGM Mirage — nixed the skull-and-cross swords sign for the newly branded “T.I.” marquee. Then in 2003, a new pirate show ditched the Disney-esque pirate performances for the sex appeal in “Sirens of TI,” a new pirate battle with female cast members, directed by Kenny Ortega.

“We’re trying to tell everybody, ‘Look, you can bring your kids to TI; you’re more than welcome. But you can also come by yourself.’ We are an adult destination,” then-Treasure Island President Scott Sibella told the Review-Journal that year.

The new show ran for another 10 years.

Businessman Phil Ruffin bought the property from MGM during the Great Recession. The $775 million sale finalized in March 2009, and Ruffin brought changes to the property in the years after. He positioned the property as a midlevel resort while new neighboring resorts — such as Las Vegas Sands’ Palazzo and Wynn Resorts’ Encore — went upscale.

Ruffin’s team traded out a high-end Italian restaurant for Gilley’s Saloon, a Western-style dance hall that existed at his last Strip property, the New Frontier. He also added a Señor Frogs, a popular Mexican-themed bar-restaurant brand in vacation spots.

The changes continued with the addition of thousands of square feet of retail space — ending the two decades of free pirate-themed shows for passersby on the Strip in 2013. (Ruffin kept the pirate ships, and wedding packages are still offered inside.)

In 2015, the property also added The Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. attraction that gave visitors theme park-like interactivity. Each of the changes was geared toward bringing the pirate ship-gawkers into the property and increasing their spending on site.

Future of Treasure Island

Ruffin remains the owner — he’s since expanded his footprint in Las Vegas with the acquisition of Circus Circus in 2019 — and held onto the property throughout the pandemic.

Dawn Wolf, the resort’s vice president of brand marketing, said the property was one of the first on the Strip to open after state-mandated closures were lifted in June 2020.

Ruffin pushed for Mystere to reopen alongside Cirque top-seller “O” in June 2021, and it remains a “top seller” to date, Wolf said.

The resort is 95 percent back to pre-pandemic operations, Wolf said.

Resort leadership is planning continued reinvestment as other resorts evolve and new neighbors join the north Strip — including The Mirage’s transition to the Hard Rock — continuing to position itself as the best value for its location on the Strip.

“Neighboring a blossoming array of new gaming, entertainment and hospitality options on the north Strip, TI has likewise invested significantly over its lifetime in order to maintain its stature as a top-visited hotel and casino,” Wolf said in an email.”

First up will be The Cove, a bar and arcade with more than 50 video and other interactive games, near the property’s pool. The roughly 8,000 square-foot venue is expected to open in the first quarter of 2024.

“There are a lot of dynamics currently evolving in the Las Vegas hospitality and entertainment market,” Wolf said in an email. “We will continue to uphold the highest of guest expectations and offer the best accommodations, dining and entertainment.”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.