(Photos by Hew Burney | SpyonVegas.com)

After all the threats and rumors that Jay-Z’s 24,000-square-foot sports bar would shut down before it even got the chance to open its doors, 40/40 welcomed a who’s who guest list to its grandiose grand opening event.

In your face, Perez Hilton!

When asked who would attend the bash prior to the doors opening, Jay-Z responded, “I don’t know! There’s so many people that have RSVPed. I know LeBron [James] and A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) will be there. Those are my two guys. After that, you never know who you might see there.”

It’s really not about who was there, though. A better question would be who wasn’t there. With everyone from Jay-Z, Beyonce, Ne-Yo, Kanye West, Vanessa Simmons (Rev Run’s daughter), Just Blaze, Beanie Sigel, LeBron James and Gary Payton all the way down to the likes of Al Sharpton (WTF?), Joe Jackson (double WTF?) and … Alan Thicke (triple WTF? with a side of “oh no he didn’t”), 40/40’s opening was a night nobody would soon forget.

40/40 also served as the perfect place for LeBron James to celebrate his 23rd B-day (man…that would have sucked if they didn’t open for that guy’s birthday). With James’ highlights being shown on 85-inch plasma screens (yes…85), it surely was King James’ night in what Jay-Z calls a “sports bar on steroids.”

“The vibe is unlike a nightclub,” Jay-Z said when asked what people should expect out of 40/40. “At its foundation it’s really a sports club. It begs for conversation and it’s this thing that you love especially if you are into sports. If you don’t really like sports then you’ll be learning about it. Then there’s music and fashion – it’s a really weird energy that’s unlike a typical nightclub.”

While it isn’t much of a “club” in the literal sense, there was enough music and dancing to go around. An open bar until midnight got everyone in the building a little loose and found people making their own space in the sports bar to get their groove on top of the 24k gold and platinum floors.

If you somehow made it on the guest list and weaseled out because you thought it wasn’t going to open, in the immortal words of Bill Duke from Menace II Society, “You know you done fucked up, right?”

By Andreas Hale

Trackback URI | Comments RSS