MGM Springfield, the $1 billion resort casino that’s had a less-than-devastating impact on Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, named a new president Tuesday, turning to a Connecticut College graduate with ties to New England.

In a mid-morning news release, MGM Resorts International announced that Chris Kelley, president and chief operating officer of MGM Northfield Park in Northfield, Ohio, will move into the same position at MGM Springfield, replacing Mike Mathis, who had headed the Massachusetts casino since well before its opening in August 2018.

Mathis will assume a new job as senior vice president of business development at MGM Resorts headquarters in Las Vegas, the company said.

MGM Springfield kept $19 million in gaming revenue in December, down 12.2 percent over the previous December and the lowest total in any of its 16 full months of operation.

The casino’s gaming revenues have fallen short of projections almost from the start.

Kelley, who earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science at Connecticut College and a master’s in economics from the University of North Carolina, has been at MGM Northfield Park since April, when MGM Resorts acquired and rebranded the property, which had been known as Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park. Northfield is about 17 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland.

Kelley joined MGM Resorts as vice president and chief financial officer of MGM Grand Detroit in 2017. Before that, he spent 18 years at Viejas Casino & Resort near San Diego, Calif., where he held several leadership positions, including five years as general manager.

“MGM Springfield has so much to offer its guests, and the property has made an extraordinary impact on the city,” Kelley said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to be working with this community and joining this remarkable team. It is wonderful to be heading back home, having grown up in New England.”

Kelley, whose new role is subject to regulatory approval, was unavailable Tuesday.

Mathis had appeared publicly over the weekend, when MGM Springfield hosted its first Red Sox Winter Weekend, an event that Foxwoods had held in recent years.

Prior to the event, Jim Murren, MGM Resorts’ chief executive, told The Boston Globe that plans called for MGM Springfield to offer more entertainment options. He also said the legalization of sports betting would help the casino. 

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, both major entertainment destinations, also are eager to provide sports betting, which Connecticut lawmakers are expected to revisit during the upcoming legislative session. The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, respective owners of the Connecticut casinos, have proposed building a "satellite" facility in East Windsor, Conn., about 13 miles south of MGM Springfield, a project MGM Resorts has long sought to block. 

The change in MGM Springfield’s top leadership comes three months after similar upheaval at Encore Boston Harbor, the $2.6 billion resort casino that Wynn Resorts opened in June in Everett, Mass.

Robert DeSalvio, a onetime Foxwoods executive who headed Encore during the planning stages and throughout its opening and first few months of operation, was replaced as president by Brian Gullbrants, who was in charge of Encore’s hotel and food-and-beverage operations.

Encore’s gaming revenues also have fallen short of projections.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com