Not so long ago, southeastern Connecticut’s casino-owning Indian tribes were alarmed by the specter of a competitor looming in Springfield, Mass.

Now, there’s speculation about whether the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans ― either individually or as partners ― might be interested in acquiring MGM Springfield, which Bloomberg reported last week could soon be up for sale.

According to the report, Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts International, MGM Springfield’s owner, is looking to unload the Massachusetts casino, as well as one in Ohio, in a bid to improve the company’s bottom line. Bloomberg attributed the information to unnamed sources.

While both tribes were vague about their level of interest in MGM Springfield if it were to end up on the block, a leading gaming expert who has advised both tribes said Monday such an acquisition by either tribe, or both, “makes a lot of sense, depending on the price.”

Clyde Barrow, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburgh, Texas, and general manager of Pyramid Associates, a Massachusetts-based consulting firm, advised MMCT Venture, the partnership the tribes formed in 2015 to solicit proposals from municipalities willing to host a casino that would compete against MGM Springfield, which opened in 2018.

The partnership settled on a site in East Windsor, then agreed to put the project on hold for at least a decade during negotiations that led to the state’s 2021 legalization of sports betting and online casino gaming.

Barrow said MGM Springfield, built at a cost of nearly $1 billion, has predictably failed to live up to expectations in terms of revenue, but only because those expectations were unrealistic.

“It’s performed at a level we predicted,” he said. “They (MGM Resorts) have publicly admitted they overestimated the size of the market. We said at the time the market could sustain a $350 million to $450 million investment as opposed to the monument they constructed in Springfield.”

He said the casino has done 40% to 50% of the business MGM Resorts projected it would do.

“So, I’ll say, ‘I told you so,’” Barrow said.

“That’s not to say it’s not a viable casino at the right level of investment,” he said. “Anyone purchasing it will be looking for a discount of what MGM paid. ... My barometer is if a property’s doing $350 million, that’s what I’m going to pay for it ― at most.”

MGM Springfield generated $278 million in gambling revenue in 2023.

Barrow noted the tribes were planning a $300 million to $400 million investment in Tribal Winds, their East Windsor project. He said it would make more sense for the tribes to buy an existing casino rather than build a new one.

MGM Springfield hasn’t had the impact on the tribes’ casinos ― Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun ― that the tribes feared it would, Barrow said.

Ray Pineault, president and chief executive officer of Mohegan, the tribal gaming and entertainment company that owns Mohegan Sun, sidestepped a question about his tribe’s interest in MGM Springfield.

“We are aware of the potential sale of MGM Springfield, along with other MGM assets,” Pineault wrote in an email. “We regularly look at various opportunities that would continue to grow the Mohegan brand. As you are aware, we just opened our spectacular resort in Korea ... and have a team working tirelessly on preparing an exciting bid to compete for a N.Y. downstate casino license. While these are large endeavors that consume a considerable amount of time and effort from our entire team, there are still many other opportunities that our team is exploring ...”

Similarly, Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket tribal chairman, wrote that his tribe is “always exploring opportunities to expand the Foxwoods brand.”

He acknowledged the challenges MGM has faced given the original investment amount and the impact of the pandemic.

“It’s a great market and why we were pursuing the casino in East Windsor that has been paused,” he said. “We have certainly monitored it, but we have been hyper focused on redeveloping Foxwoods into one of the premiere resort entertainment destinations in the country.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com