Florida is home to one of the finest music venues in all of country music.
The most iconic of the Florida casinos is nominated for an Academy of Country Music award. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood was nominated for “Casino of the Year—Theater.”
The South Florida casino is the flagship property of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which owns and operates all six Class III casinos in the Sunshine State. On May 11, the tribe’s premier live music venue, Hard Rock Live, will go up against the best casino-owned theaters in the country.
Here are the other nominees:
- Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood, South Dakota
- Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, Louisiana
- Resorts World Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada
- Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
Each year, iconic country music artists appear at Hard Rock Live, a 7,000-capacity theater.
“I’ll put it up against any theater in North America,” said Andrew Saunders, vice president of entertainment for Seminole Gaming, in an interview with PlayFL earlier this month.
The ACM Awards show will be hosted by music icons Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks and can be viewed live streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Hard Rock gets first-ever ACM nomination
This is the first nomination for Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood for any category. The tribe opened Hard Rock Live in 2019 as part of a larger renovation project. Thus, the property is just starting to gain national recognition.
In 2006, the Seminoles purchased the Hard Rock brand for nearly $1 billion. It remains the most expensive media and real estate purchase by a federally-recognized tribe in U.S. history.
Consequently, under its corporate umbrella Hard Rock International, the Seminoles own countless Hard Rock-branded properties worldwide. That includes 11 casinos, 24 hotels, 165 restaurants and two concert venues. Additionally, these properties employ 4,800 people.
In both 2021 and 2022, Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, won the ACM Award in the “Casino of the Year—Theater” category. However, ACM didn’t nominate that venue this year.
George Strait, John Mayer and Guns N’ Roses highlight the 2023 schedule
Hard Rock Live only holds 7,000 seats. As a result, Saunders said watching a popular artist in an intimate setting is “a unique experience for the super fan.”
This year, Hard Rock Live at Seminole in Hollywood will welcome several big names to the stage. These are the highlights of the remaining schedule for the year:
- April 29: Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo
- April 30: Steve Martin & Martin Short
- May 5: Jonas Brothers
- May 12: Tom Jones
- June 20: Bryan Adams
- August 2: George Strait
- September 15: Guns N’ Roses
- September 27: John Mayer
A complete schedule can be found on the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood website.