Clark County Will Present Formula 1 ‘Debriefing Report” On Las Vegas Grand Prix Event That Caused Commerce, Transportation Problems In Its First Year
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Clark County’s long-awaited F1 race “debriefing report” is set to be presented before county commissioners at their commission meeting Tuesday.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix spent months and months disrupting commerce and transportation along the 3.8-mile F1 race course for the 90-minute race on a Saturday night in mid-November.
Clark County Manager Kevin Schiller referred to the traffic jams and disruptions caused by the grand prix event along the Strip corridor as “daily challenges.”
Many workers, locals and businesses complained during the road repaving, closed lanes, shut down roads and limited access to businesses.
An observer might wonder how serious the report will be when the county manager referred to these major problems and disruptions as merely “daily challenges.”
Despite all the first-year headaches, road congestion and negative impacts on some businesses, Schiller called the race “a successful LVGP.”
Here’s the backup for the county commission meeting agenda number 64:
The race event was noteworthy in that Clark County commissioners appeared blindsided by the extent to which the Las Vegas Grand Prix affected businesses and hurt locals by causing traffic problems. They failed to anticipate the race’s impacts and hardly played a watchdog role on behalf of local workers and businesses.
The area’s high-end hotels reported they did better than usual for that particular weekend.
But businesses like restaurants and retailers said the race course and its barriers and fencing limited access for customers to reach their businesses. A group of businesses is looking at suing the county, Formula 1 and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) to recover lost revenues in the months leading up to the Nov. 16-18 race event.
County Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom acknowledged the race’s problems, but hopes the grand prix’s year two will bring less aggravation than last year.
The county commissioners handed over 3.8 miles of roads and right-of-way to a powerful sports promoter, which is owned by Colorado-based Liberty Media.
