BRISTOL, Va. — On both sides of the state line people have expressed excitement for the grand opening of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol’s official grand opening on Thursday. With the opening, the 620,000-square-foot resort will include nearly 1,500 slot machines, over 50 table games, 303 hotel rooms and 2,000 seats in the Hard Rock Live venue.
But the Bristol Casino has been making an impact on the region long before this week. Becky Nave, mayor of Bristol, Virginia, said the city has seen new visitors from around the world come to the area — including downtown. Since the temporary casino opened in July 2023, Nave said the Hard Rock project has created hundreds of jobs and drawn international guests who are spending money and supporting local business.
She said the city has been heavily involved in the whole planning process. “We have had a whole team from the city working with Hard Rock from the construction piece to also down to the infrastructure, to the traffic patterns and making sure the traffic signals are up to date,” Nave said. The city also helped Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol connect to partners statewide.
Much of the city’s upcoming efforts will focus on trying to attract business to the casino district, which encompasses the casino and nearby businesses. “We developed a new comprehensive plan this year, and I was excited to see and hear from our community that we needed to develop some type of tourism zone or casino zone,” Nave said. “I.