Wheels Are Turning For Formula One Racing In Las Vegas
By Randall Cannon for LVSportsBiz.com
Everyone wants a piece of the Las Vegas sports market. Two billionaires have teamed up to talk with Major League Soccer about an MLS team in Las Vegas. Three all-star games in college football, the NHL and the NFL are being staged over four days next week. And Athletes Unlimited’s pro basketball games gave arrived in Vegas this week.
And one of the world’s most prominent motorsports series is taking a Back to the Future look at returning to Las Vegas.
Just three months after Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak confirmed he met with leaders from Formula One (F1) about a race in Las Vegas, the Sports Business Journal reported this week that LVCVA tourism agency chief Steve Hill is involved in the idea of Formula One race cars zipping along the famed Las Vegas Strip.
It’s been 40 years since the global motorsports series raced in view of the Las Vegas Strip. Efforts over the past two decades to return the pinnacle of racing competition to Las Vegas have all sputtered.
But things have changed. The reported negotiations between the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and F1 appear to be gaining meaningful traction.
The Sports Business Journal reported that F1’s interests are “led in part by Global Director of Race Promotions Chloe Targett-Adams.”
A potential race date is penciled for F1’s 2023 calendar, a schedule that includes American F1 events in Austin, Texas as well as the new Miami Grand Prix at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Despite the F1 talk in Las Vegas, numerous questions remain for a Las Vegas race. In March 2021, local outlets reported that the LVCVA was proceeding with a lawsuit against Farid Shidfar and his P2M Motorsports Management company. At issue was an apparent non-disclosure agreement between the parties, while Shidfar continued his own pursuit of a Las Vegas race.
The Las Vegas F1 race naturally centers on use of the world-famous Strip. Construction, logistics, and costs will be a serious concern, particularly for the LVCVA, the tourism agency underwritten with hotel room tax revenues.
Construction and closures on the Strip will be of significant concern for hotel and gaming operators. Those concerns draw comparison to the 1981-1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix. Both F1 events were planned to use a section of the Strip in front of Caesars Palace, but were moved to a paved circuit on the Caesars campus and former Summa Corporation property to the north, now occupied by the Mirage. That twisting Caesars Palace circuit, though effective, sparks debate to this day.
Then-Caesars Palace VP of Casino Marketing Bill Weinberger was president of the Caesars Palace F1 events. Despite the challenges of those F1 efforts, he is enthusiastic for the return of F1.
“To utilize The Strip for a portion of the race would make for a great spectacle,” Weinberger said. “Doing it at night would be incredible as the lights of the Strip would make for an unforgettable image no other city could duplicate. That being said, the logistics of getting it done are mind boggling.”
Discussion of the 2023 Vegas F1 event indeed involves racing at night. A night race might make a summer date possible, although night temperatures could still hover over 100 degrees. Scheduling outside the summer months also presents schedule conflict consideration with other pro sports in Las Vegas such as the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL and the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL
British motorsports journalist Josh Wilcock offered the international view. “The prospect of a Vegas race has been very alluring to F1 for a long time, ever since Caesars Palace bowed out in the early 80s. They’ll be hoping a night race on the strip will be less of a gamble – both for the drivers and the fans.”
Gamble indeed. For Las Vegas, the conversation would need to must move from “Are we ready?” to “How quickly can we get it done?”
Randall Cannon is a freelance journalist and the author of “Caesars Palace Grand Prix – Las Vegas, Organized Crime, and the Pinnacle of Motorsport.”
