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DEADWOOD - The combination of October and World
Series usually means baseball. A Texas-based
entertainment developer says it also will mark
Deadwood's entry into the major leagues of
nationally televised card playing.
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Bill
McDavid on Friday said he completed a deal to bring
a televised Texas Holdem poker tournament, part of
the World Series of Poker, to downtown Deadwood on
Oct. 26-27.
According to McDavid, ESPN plans to broadcast its
tournament from Callahan's at the Franklin Hotel.
Music group Big and Rich also will play during the
"World Series of Poker" event.
Franklin Hotel owner Bill Walsh said McDavid and
music promoter Mark Oswald have worked on the
landing the tournament for about a month.
McDavid has worked longer, so far unsuccessfully, to
finance the Deadwood City Limits entertainment
center. McDavid said despite setbacks, the hotel and
casino project remains alive.
McDavid said the Deadwood name and the ability to
provide a new, exciting backdrop for the poker
tournament was very attractive to entertainment
executives.
"Usually getting talks moving this far ahead would
take weeks and not just a day or two as is taking
place here," McDavid said in a separate interview
earlier this month. McDavid said the chance
opportunity was "something I just couldn't turn down
for Deadwood."
While working on Deadwood City Limits, he said he
came across a chance to "do a little something that
I thought would be good for everybody downtown."
"I have been spending all of my time on our main
project, but this other thing, the poker tournament
on cable television, it just kind of fell into my
lap out of a conversation and then things started to
happen rather quickly," said McDavid.
He said Oswald mentioned that he was in the process
of promoting a televised poker tournament for Las
Vegas that would feature the music group Big and
Rich.
"We were just talking and I said it was too bad we
couldn't do that project here in Deadwood, a town
that is really historically linked to poker,"
McDavid said. "What started out as a comment quickly
turned into a lot more; within the day I was talking
to other people involved with the tournament."
Walsh said that his ESPN contact had confirmed
Friday there will be an October show from the
Franklin. The two-day taping will feature 12
previous winners. ESPN will fly the players to
Deadwood, where they will stay at the Franklin.
Callahan's is the hotel's Main Street level saloon,
featuring huge plate glass windows. The setting, and
floor space that will give TV cameras elbow room
around the
Texas
Holdem
poker
tables, drove the selection, Walsh said.
"Bill McDavid and Mark Osborn in Nashville have
worked on this for about a month. They have some of
the contacts, and this is indicative that they are
capable of this kind of business," Walsh said. "It
should be a great attraction for us."
The Deadwood City Limits project involves buying the
former "Slime Plant" mining industrial building from
Lawrence County and converting Deadwood's last
historic mine building into a resort and live
entertainment center.
McDavid said work on the DCL project recently became
simplier. The non-profit Deadwood Economic
Development Corp. will act as middleman in the
property transfer from the county, he said.
He said financing has gained slow momentum,
recovering from what he claims was "fraud" by a
group of speculators.
"We are far from being finished and walking away
from this project," McDavid said. "Everybody
involved with this project are still positive, after
the smoke has cleared, about going with one of
several larger institutions that have all expressed
interest in working with us to put this project
together." |
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