Despite lower ticket prices and room rates, fewer fans forecast for F1 events this week
LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX
PHOTOS BY BRIAN RAMOS
Traffic is detoured Wednesday on Koval Lane at Harmon Avenue, outside the Las Vegas Grand Prix Plaza. The Las Vegas Grand Prix, back for its second year in the heart of the Resort Corridor, is scheduled to begin tonight with practice runs and will continue nightly through Saturday, when the Formula One race takes place.
Traffic is detoured Wednesday on Koval Lane at Harmon Avenue, outside the Las Vegas Grand Prix Plaza. The Las Vegas Grand Prix, back for its second year in the heart of the Resort Corridor, is scheduled to begin tonight with practice runs and will continue nightly through Saturday, when the Formula One race takes place.
When the Las Vegas Grand Prix begins its second run in Las Vegas tonight, the Formula One racers will likely be competing in front of fewer fans.
Race officials, in an event permit application with Clark County, estimated there would be about 100,000 spectators — or one-third of the 315,000 who they say attended the inaugural event in 2023.
The decrease has affected hotel room book prices, with the average rate of a three-night stay at $1,372.82 compared with last year’s average of $2,314, according to Vegas Insider, a website that provides gambling odds and trends.
Airbnb said its prices also have seen a significant reduction from $1,946 for an average three-night stay last year to $533.47 this year.
And race tickets are 76% cheaper than last year’s inaugural race, according to VegasInsider. A standard admission ticket for today’s practice runs for the South Koval Zone starts at $99.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix racing runs will take place daily through Saturday, taking over parts of the Strip and nearby roads and transforming them for a few hours each night into a 3.8-mile, 17-turn track that international F1 drivers will race down at speeds sometimes nearing 200 mph.
“People are attracted by experience, and we know that last year, the F1 was promoted as this very engaging experience, unique experience (that) was as big as the brand.
... Everyone was very curious (and) there was this energy around it,” said Marta Soligo, an assistant professor at UNLV and director of tourism research at the UNLV Office of Economic Development.”
Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president for corporate affairs at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, told the Sun that race officials “have seen great fan interest” in this year’s event.
Asked if event organizers were expecting similar numbers to last year’s attendance, Nelson-Kraft said they would be looking at the numbers after this weekend and highlighted the tourism opportunities the race brings to Las Vegas.
“We’ll be able to give more of a snapshot on that post-event, but the buzz is building, we see a lot of excitement,” Nelson-Kraft said of the expected ticket demand. “The scale and scope and complexity of our different fan zones and activations and the live entertainment that’s fused together with the thrill of that one is really just creating a lot of excitement for our guests, and that’s what we’re seeing, and that’s what we’re hearing.”
A report assembled last year by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showed that the Grand Prix “generated six times more publicity during race week than it did all year long.”
Some of the lower prices are an attempt by race officials to make the event affordable for locals, some of whom expressed displeasure in being priced out of the inaugural event. Officials responded this year by adding two additional viewing zones.
The Flamingo Zone for general admission and three-day Caesars Palace Experience were added specifically to attract more local attendees, they say.
Locals also were upset with traffic delays caused by repaving roads and updating lighting on the Strip as part of the course layout prior to the 2023 event.
While Soligo, a sociologist who studies tourism, said community concerns for the first year of an event were normal, she believes these issues created a bad “label” for the race in the minds of Southern Nevadans that won’t be easy to change.
But the Grand Prix is trying to reverse its image.
The race league responded through community outreach, such as hosting a free, two-day Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience and setting up an alert system to notify residents when roads would be closed for racecourse work. Those closures, because repaving was already done, weren’t as disruptive this time around.
Soligo said Las Vegas’ diversifying tourism economy is laying “fertile soil for sports tourism,” and the F1 event may be able to clean its image up by taking a page from other large-scale events or sports teams.
For example, some experts Soligo has interviewed lauded February’s Super Bowl for promoting local businesses and getting involved in the community through local tree-planting efforts and donations, among other actions.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix followed the Super Bowl’s lead and created a local business directory to be distributed to race teams and visitors.
Soligo said being more transparent and communicative with locals, as well as getting involved with the community and minimizing daily life impacts, might secure more local interest.
“There is a label, what we call memory, or in sociology collective memory, the memory of Las Vegas, when you mention F1, I think that it feels several times associated with traffic; is associated with ‘I’m not part of it for a series of reasons,’ (and) last year, the communication wasn’t great, and unfortunately, you pay the consequences of that,” Soligo said. “From my research, when I spoke with people, all they want is no disruption to their everyday life, so already they will have a nicer attitude if there is no traffic.
.... Start with everyday life disruption and being transparent, recognize the issues, help the community, show that you’re really interested in the communities (and) not only like you’re doing that for branding or for money.” grace.darocha@gmgvegas. com / 702-948-7854 / @gracedarocha
Race officials, in an event permit application with Clark County, estimated there would be about 100,000 spectators — or one-third of the 315,000 who they say attended the inaugural event in 2023.
The decrease has affected hotel room book prices, with the average rate of a three-night stay at $1,372.82 compared with last year’s average of $2,314, according to Vegas Insider, a website that provides gambling odds and trends.
Airbnb said its prices also have seen a significant reduction from $1,946 for an average three-night stay last year to $533.47 this year.
And race tickets are 76% cheaper than last year’s inaugural race, according to VegasInsider. A standard admission ticket for today’s practice runs for the South Koval Zone starts at $99.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix racing runs will take place daily through Saturday, taking over parts of the Strip and nearby roads and transforming them for a few hours each night into a 3.8-mile, 17-turn track that international F1 drivers will race down at speeds sometimes nearing 200 mph.
“People are attracted by experience, and we know that last year, the F1 was promoted as this very engaging experience, unique experience (that) was as big as the brand.
... Everyone was very curious (and) there was this energy around it,” said Marta Soligo, an assistant professor at UNLV and director of tourism research at the UNLV Office of Economic Development.”
Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president for corporate affairs at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, told the Sun that race officials “have seen great fan interest” in this year’s event.
Asked if event organizers were expecting similar numbers to last year’s attendance, Nelson-Kraft said they would be looking at the numbers after this weekend and highlighted the tourism opportunities the race brings to Las Vegas.
“We’ll be able to give more of a snapshot on that post-event, but the buzz is building, we see a lot of excitement,” Nelson-Kraft said of the expected ticket demand. “The scale and scope and complexity of our different fan zones and activations and the live entertainment that’s fused together with the thrill of that one is really just creating a lot of excitement for our guests, and that’s what we’re seeing, and that’s what we’re hearing.”
A report assembled last year by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showed that the Grand Prix “generated six times more publicity during race week than it did all year long.”
Some of the lower prices are an attempt by race officials to make the event affordable for locals, some of whom expressed displeasure in being priced out of the inaugural event. Officials responded this year by adding two additional viewing zones.
The Flamingo Zone for general admission and three-day Caesars Palace Experience were added specifically to attract more local attendees, they say.
Locals also were upset with traffic delays caused by repaving roads and updating lighting on the Strip as part of the course layout prior to the 2023 event.
While Soligo, a sociologist who studies tourism, said community concerns for the first year of an event were normal, she believes these issues created a bad “label” for the race in the minds of Southern Nevadans that won’t be easy to change.
But the Grand Prix is trying to reverse its image.
The race league responded through community outreach, such as hosting a free, two-day Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience and setting up an alert system to notify residents when roads would be closed for racecourse work. Those closures, because repaving was already done, weren’t as disruptive this time around.
Soligo said Las Vegas’ diversifying tourism economy is laying “fertile soil for sports tourism,” and the F1 event may be able to clean its image up by taking a page from other large-scale events or sports teams.
For example, some experts Soligo has interviewed lauded February’s Super Bowl for promoting local businesses and getting involved in the community through local tree-planting efforts and donations, among other actions.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix followed the Super Bowl’s lead and created a local business directory to be distributed to race teams and visitors.
Soligo said being more transparent and communicative with locals, as well as getting involved with the community and minimizing daily life impacts, might secure more local interest.
“There is a label, what we call memory, or in sociology collective memory, the memory of Las Vegas, when you mention F1, I think that it feels several times associated with traffic; is associated with ‘I’m not part of it for a series of reasons,’ (and) last year, the communication wasn’t great, and unfortunately, you pay the consequences of that,” Soligo said. “From my research, when I spoke with people, all they want is no disruption to their everyday life, so already they will have a nicer attitude if there is no traffic.
.... Start with everyday life disruption and being transparent, recognize the issues, help the community, show that you’re really interested in the communities (and) not only like you’re doing that for branding or for money.” grace.darocha@gmgvegas. com / 702-948-7854 / @gracedarocha