Tribe buys Hard Rock chain
Tribe buys Hard Rock chain
ROBERT BARR AND PETE HARRISON

AN AMERICAN Indian tribe has bought the music-themed Hard Rock Cafe chain for nearly $1 billion, in a move which underlines the growing wealth and power of the country's native peoples.

"This is a proud moment for the Seminole tribe of Florida and for all Indian tribes," said Mitchell Cypress, the chairman of the elected tribal council.

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"It is also an opportunity for the Seminole tribe to diversify its business operations and help a very successful company to achieve even greater growth," he added.

The tribe broke new ground when it became the first American Indian group to get into the gambling business, opening a bingo hall in 1979 in Hollywood, Florida.

That led to other casinos on reservations in Florida and attracted the interest of Native American tribes across the United States.

In a landmark 1987 ruling the US Supreme Court recognised that, as sovereign political entities, federally recognised Native American tribal entities could operate gaming facilities free of state regulation - and taxes.

This led to about 220 of 562 officially recognised Native American tribes in the United States establishing gambling or "gaming" facilities on their lands, with about 360 currently operating across the US, collecting more than £22 billion in annual revenues, according to US government figures.

The revenues generated in these establishments can be substantial. The largest casino in the US, Foxwoods in Connecticut, is owned by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. Its revenues are £4 billion a year.

And more than 90 per cent of Seminole budget now comes from such operations, with five casinos across the state of Florida.

Much of their money is spent on educational programmes and cultural work, but members of the tribe benefit from its money making ventures individually.

The Hard Rock business includes 124 Hard Rock Cafes - including one in Edinburgh - four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues, and stakes in three unbranded hotels.

The tribe also now finds itself the owner of what is said to be the world's largest collection of rock memorabilia some 70,000 pieces strong, including Jimi Hendrix's Flying V guitar, one of Madonna's bustiers, a pair of Elton John's high-heeled shoes and guitars formerly owned by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry.

The Seminole have a proud history and are believed to be the only American Indian tribe never to have a peace treaty with the US government.

A war fought between its warriors and federal forces between 1832 and 1842 resulted in the death of some 1,500 American soldiers and a stalemate, even though the tribe was heavily outnumbered. The US government is estimated to have spent £11 million on the war, at the time a huge sum.

The tribe has now forged its fighting instinct into a business one.

Seminole Gaming, the main revenue earner for the Florida tribe, yesterday talked of plans to expand the Hard Rock hotel and cafe business through major cities around the world and of hopes to expand Hard Rock casinos internationally, but not in Britain. "We realise the power and longevity of this brand," Jim Allen, the chief executive of Seminole Gaming said.
ENTERPRISES RANGE FROM GAMING TO RANCHING

THE tribe is descended from the few hundred Seminole Indians who did not leave Florida when the US government attempted to relocate them to a reservation in Oklahoma in the 1800s.

The tribe consists of about 3,300 members, and more than 90 per cent of its budget comes from gaming revenue. Other business includes cattle ranching, citrus production, tourism, sports management and tobacco sales.

The Florida Seminoles' first stable business enterprise was started in 1977, when they started selling discount and tax-free tobacco products. The tribe opened its first high-stakes bingo hall and casino in the United States in 1979.

It currently owns and operates two Seminole Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos and five non-Hard Rock casinos in Florida.

Seminole ranchers are among the top ten cattle producers in Florida and the tribe also raises rodeo stock.
FALLEN ON HARD TIMES

EXACTLY what the Seminole plan to do with the Hard Rock chain is unclear - but it is clear they must do something.

From their commercial heyday in the late 1980s, when people would collect T-shirts from the branches around the world and its distinctive logo was regarded with admiration, the Hard Rock cafes now have a dated image.

The first Hard Rock was opened near Hyde Park Corner in London in the early 1970s by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton. The restaurant's motto "love all, serve all" was adopted from Mr Tigrett's then-guru Sathya Sai Baba.

The chain began serious global expansion in 1982. The founders sold out their stakes in the business separately and eventual ownership fell to the Rank Group.