resorts, competing against The Mirage and new properties such as the Venetian and Paris resorts. It was planned as part of a larger project known as the Masterplan Mile, a complex which would include two other new resorts by Circus, although these never materialized. Construction on Project Paradise began in 1997. Problems arose during construction in mid-1998, because of excessive and uneven settling of the soil beneath the resort; the core of the building sank by , while one of the wings had settled by only . Rumors about the severity of the issues depressed Circus Circus's stock price. The problem was solved by installing 536 micropiles (200-foot-long metal pipes filled with grout, each capped with a hydraulic jack) below the building, at an estimated cost of $8 million to $10 million. The damage from the settling was limited to minor cracks in the resort's valet parking facility. In February 1998, the project was officially named Mandalay Bay, after the city of Mandalay in Myanmar. The name was also chosen to evoke the exotic tropical romanticism of the poem "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling. More than a dozen names had been considered for the resort. Mandalay Bay cost $950 million to build, making it the most expensive project to date for Circus Circus. The company expected to spend more than $10 million on a print and television advertising campaign in the months leading up to the resort's opening. Mandalay Bay opened at 10:00 p.m. on March 2, 1999, following a private opening for VIPs earlier in the day that included numerous celebrities. Grand opening festivities included the Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi, and John Goodman) leading a procession of 200 motorcycles to Mandalay Bay's front doors. Later, they performed at the resort's House of Blues club, as did Bob Dylan. Mandalay Bay employed 5,000 people, with 30 percent coming from other Circus Circus properties. The company changed its name to Mandalay Resort Group later in 1999, reflecting its flagship property. In 2002, Mandalay Bay sought approval from the U.S. and Chinese governments to import two panda bears for exhibit at the resort. The property would build a glass-domed structure for the animals, next to the resort's Shark Reef aquatic attraction and away from the casino floor. The panda exhibit would generate up to $50 million a year, which would be given to the Chinese government to further conservation efforts for