Hard Rock Bristol goes all-in for grand opening

The bright lights of Bristol shine considerably brighter following the opening of Virginia’s second full-fledged casino.

The Nov. 14 grand opening of the $515 million-plus Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol, Virginia’s first hotel/casino combo, was grand indeed. Symphonies of sounds, from music to slot machines, indicated the site’s time for business had arrived.

“This brand is now 54 years old, [with] 60,000 employees in 74 countries,” says Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen. “I hope we have collectively created something that everyone is proud of.”

Located near downtown Bristol, the casino resort’s dominant features include a 45-foot-tall guitar at the entrance to the 303-room (including 56 suites) concave-shaped hotel. The 620,000-square-foot facility opened with the Hard Rock tradition of The Who-like smashing of guitars inside Hard Rock Live Bristol, an indoor flexible capacity venue that can seat up to 2,000 people.

There’s a spa in the hotel, nearly 1,500 slot machines in the casino, 38,000 original miles on Faith Hill’s vintage Rudolph red Corvette on the casino floor, 50 table games, and countless grins on the faces of those who made the place happen.

“It was a moonshot,” says Jim McGlothlin, chairman of Bristol-based United Co. The Bristol Hard Rock was developed through a joint venture between Hard Rock, McGlothlin and Par Ventures President Clyde Stacy. “With Hard Rock, we went to work in Bristol. We’re changing a lot of lives here.”

The new resort casino replaces the temporary Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock, which opened in July 2022 as Virginia’s first operating casino. Since then, a permanent facility in Portsmouth and a temporary casino in Danville have opened. Located inside the former Bristol Mall, the 30,000-square-foot temporary casino featured 900 slot machines, 29 table games and a sportsbook. In its first year of operation, the temporary Bristol casino’s net gaming revenues totaled $157 million.

Today, Hard Rock Bristol maintains about 1,400 permanent jobs.

The development team previously pushed back the opening of the permanent casino at 500 Gate City Highway, which had been expected in July, in favor of opening the full casino resort, the nation’s eighth Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Adults grinned like children at a theme park on opening day. Their enthusiasm was music to the ears of McGlothlin and his Hard Rock brethren.

“It’s Bristol, baby!” McGlothlin says. “The casino is our winning lottery number.”