Gentlemen At Las Vegas Paving, Start Your Construction Engines: Las Vegas Grand Prix Route Repaving (And Traffic Jams) Start April 2
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
Las Vegas Grand Prix has contracted with Las Vegas Paving Corp. to repave the Formula One 3.8-mile car race route that includes a segment of southbound Las Vegas Boulevard.
Get ready for the traffic jams and delays starting April 2.
WHERE: The following streets will have rolling lane closures on select dates for initial track paving:
- Sands Avenue: Sunday, April 2 – Friday, April 7
- Las Vegas Boulevard: Sunday, April 9 – Friday, May 19
- Harmon Avenue: Monday, May 22 – Friday, May 26
- Koval Lane: Sunday, June 11 – Friday, June 16
- Paddock Site: Monday, June 19 – Friday, June 30
- Sphere Site: Monday, August 21 – Friday August 25
There’s more:
The following streets will have rolling lane closures on select dates for final track paving:
- Sands Avenue/Las Vegas Boulevard: Sunday, July 16 – Friday, July 21
- Las Vegas Boulevard: Sunday, July 23 – Friday, July 28
- Harmon Avenue: Sunday, July 30 – Friday, August 4
- Paddock Site: Sunday, August 6 – Friday, August 11
- Koval Lane: Sunday, August 13 – Friday, August 18
- Sphere Site/Sands Avenue: Sunday, September 10 – Friday, September 15
The resurfacing work will cost in the $74 million range, but how much public money will Clark County spend toward the repaving job?
Remarkably, Clark County gave the green light at an earlier meeting for the Las Vegas Grand Prix to be held for 10 years through 2032 without even knowing how much it will spend toward the race route repaving project.
Insiders at Clark County tell LVSportsBiz.com that the county was not too happy about the amount of money Formula One wanted the county to spend on the road surfacing for the F1 race.
So, it’s still under discussion — privately.
But eventually, Clark County says, the money the county will spend will eventually come up at a public meeting: “As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we recognize the unique impact that the F1 race and subsequent races in the resort corridor will have on our region as a whole and we are excited that F1 is now part of our growing sports brand. While Clark County continues to determine what dollars, if any, will be dedicated to make this a reality, we are committed to ensuring a public discussion occurs before a public private partnership is forged.”
There will be lots of international visitors spending lots of tourism cash in Las Vegas for the grand prix, though many locals have said that they will not be attending the Nov. 16-18 race event because the starting ticket price of $500 was too expensive.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), as usual, has crowed about the economic impact of the sports event, claiming there will be a more than $1 billion economic impact. But there is no definition of “economic impact” and no explanation of the methodology behind these spending numbers that are quoted by local boosters and then repeated by most media members.
This will be a sports event for the rich. Most ticket packages are in the thousands of dollars.
Winn Las Vegas floated a $1 million F1 race ticket package. Then Caesars Entertainment not to be outdone, promoted a $5 million race deal.
Expect local hotel companies to crank up room rates for that Nov. 16-18 F1 race event. The good news for local residents is that 88 cents on every $100 spent on hotel rooms go into the revenue pot to help pay off Southern Nevada’s debt on the Raiders stadium. The debt is more than $1 billion on the $750 million spent by Southern Nevada toward the construction of the domed, 62,000-seat NFL stadium.
Speaking of big events, Allegiant Stadium is hosting Super Bowl 58 in February.
