Clark County Says Formula 1 Race Has Green Light For November After County Removed Grand Prix Item From Tuesday’s County Commission Meeting Agenda; Business Owner: ‘People Are Going To Go Ballistic’
ADVERTISEMENT
Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
ADVERTISEMENT
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Just a day after Clark County pulled an item from Tuesday’s county commission agenda on discussing “Clark County’s involvement in future Formula One races,” the county released a statement Wednesday that began, “The F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix race will move forward as planned this year November 21 -23.”
The county’s statement emailed to the media at 6:38 PM today seemed strange because county commissioners did not address the controversial road race Tuesday at their meeting. Yet the statement announced what appeared to be a decision on moving ahead with the Las Vegas Grand Prix despite problems that the Nov. 18 race hurt some businesses and caused major disruption to commerce and transportation in the Strip corridor.
Here’s the statement issued by Jennifer Cooper, Clark County’s chief communications and strategy officer:
“The F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix race will move forward as planned this year November 21 -23, and in the coming years reflective of the Board’s action to reserve and authorize use of the public right of way for the next three years. The County Manager’s public debrief will identify a better structure for facilitating the race specific to the engagement of county departments, regional entities, and race organizers. This process will help to reduce the public impact of the race in the months and weeks leading up to it. The temporary bridge will be needed once again, but conversations are occurring with the intent to minimize its impact.”
Cooper told LVSportsBiz.com that the county commission last year agreed to having the Las Vegas Grand Prix for three years with the option of holding it for ten years. The race promoter, Liberty Media-owned Formula 1, can reserve a two-week window of dates for the public right-of-ways.
“Each year, the race will seek a special event permit which facilitates the closures of the roads for the race,” Cooper wrote to LVSportsBiz.com this evening.
But F1 has already announced its race date for 2024 with county commissioners not even publicly discussing the matter at a meeting and without city staff explaining how the county plans to avoid the hardships caused by the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix Nov. 18.
Randy Markin, who runs Battista’s Hole in the Wall restaurant and Stage Door Casino and says his businesses lost millions of dollars in revenue because of the F1 race three months ago, was outraged by the Clark County statement because he said no county commissioners have reached out to him about the race’s impact on local businesses.
“I’ve been very fair and diplomatic and I have had not one phone call from one commissioner,” Markin said tonight. “That’s not right. That’s not how you engage your community. People are going to go ballistic.”
Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a public relations specialist who has spoken on behalf of the businesses hurt by F1, called Clark County’s statement “outrageous.”
“There was no public engagement. They have not in any way had a conversation with any of the business owners impacted by the bridge. There is no RTC traffic study for the bridge. It’s a ‘takings’ to give the public right-of-way to F1 in our prized resort corridor,” Mayo-DeRiso said.
“There is no reason to vote for any of the incumbents running for the County Commission in 2024,” Mayo-DeRiso said. “Why? Because (the county) has to put the business and the public in second place to F1.”
LVSportsBiz.com contacted County Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom about the county statement and left messages. If we hear back from the commission chairman we will include his comments in this story.
The race used a 3.8-mile course that closed down a healthy portion of the Strip and other roads like Koval Lane. Road closings in preparation for the race happened months before the November racing event and angered many shop owners and workers, while also limiting access for customers to reach businesses.
The public tourism agency, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), pumped up the F1 race. And indeed, the race promoters generated tens of millions of dollars in ticket revenues and high-end hotels did financially well, with local businesses like restaurants getting hit hard because of traffic and customer access problems.
