Instead, after the business climate changed, it exercised a clause in its contract to pay $500,000 per year for 15 years to be used for Union Station improvements. MGM said it would work to find a new shop or attraction for the Kringle space but the building– once the First Spiritualist Church, saved at the city’s insistence and relocated on rollers during construction – was flooded by a burst pipe this winter. Today it has 1,600 slots, 50 table games and 15 poker tables, having added the last tables a few months ago. Hiring is in part up to the vagaries of the wider job market, but MGM continues to train dealers, advertise and host job fairs in Springfield.
Today, it has 1,500 employees with about 200 vacant jobs and an informal expectation to grow to about 2,000 jobs.
It hit that number briefly, soon after opening. MGM projected it would create 3,000 jobs.
