“This is an out-of-the-park-home run game changer,” said South Lake Tahoe Councilman Tom Davis, who since the 1970s worked on the property through its times as the High Sierra, the Sahara Tahoe and the Horizon. A whole lotta love resonated along with rock music throughout the site and in Vinyl, the largest – for now – music venue, where Reno’s Mojo Green played for 500 concertgoers. On this night, Lake Tahoe felt like it was back as the vacation destination. Hard Rock created 500 jobs, its hotel has 539 rooms, the casino includes a sports book, and there will be four live music venues on the property. In a scene as crowded as New Year’s Eve in South Shore’s Stateline Casino Corridor, thousands of people packed to capacity the new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Lake Tahoe on Wednesday while several hundred more waited to get in at the front entrance next to a monstrous guitar sculpture. Susan Riley places Michael Jackson’s glove in a glass case. But with the help of a mild early start to winter, more than 700 men at work met the Jan. Close enough for rock ’n’ roll.Ĭompletion of a $60 million remodel of a huge, historic Lake Tahoe Casino in less than six months seemed like a long shot. Striking an Elvis pose, a Hard Rock Hotel Lake Tahoe employee readies for the opening.