Hollywood Presents Diamond Award to the Tribe

By Adelsa Williams

HOLLYWOOD — The Hollywood Business Council has awarded the Seminole Tribe of Florida with the Most Notable Overall Economic Impact Diamond Award for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The award was presented at the Nov. 17 city commission meeting that took place at the Hollywood City Hall.

Hollywood Council Representative Max B. Osceola Jr. and Gaming CEO Jim Allen accepted the award that was presented by Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti and President of the Hollywood Business Council, Dennis Giordano.

The city of Hollywood had previously planned to present the award during a Hollywood business appreciation event that took place on Oct. 26. However, due to scheduling conflicts, the award was presented during the city commission meeting.

Giordano presented the award saying, “The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is an investment made by the Seminole Tribe of Florida of over three hundred million dollars. They will employ over three thousand people and we feel that they are a major economic contributor to the city of Hollywood, so we asked Max Osceola and Jim Allen to please accept this award.”

Osceola and Allen came up to the podium to accept the award, followed by a thank you speech by both.

“Thank you mayor, city commissioners. We appreciate this award and I accept it for all of our tribal members and tribal council,” said Osceola. “When we thought about improving our reservation, we also wanted to do something that will impact the whole community and for the tourists. The Seminole Tribe has been dealing with tourists since 1492 when we found the first tourist on our shores, Christopher Columbus, so this is something we’re going to cherish.”

Allen followed, “On behalf of our over 6,000 employees employed in all of our Seminole casinos throughout the state, it is an honor to accept this award.”

“When the tribe hired me they said that they wanted to build a world class facility and we were not able to that obviously, without the support of the tribal members and tribal council,” Allen said.

Both Osceola and Allen announced Dec. 16 as the grand opening date of Seminole Paradise during the meeting.

With the thousands of job openings the new establishment has created, and the millions of goods and services from thousands of Florida vendors the Seminole gaming establishment has purchased, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino contributes significantly not only to the city of Hollywood, but also to the state of Florida and continues to rock on with the new Seminole Paradise entertainment venture scheduled for its grand opening this month.