Lawsuit Against Formula 1, Clark County Imminent As Las Vegas Businesses Will Allege They Lost Millions Of Dollars In Revenue Because Of Las Vegas Grand Prix
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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LVSportsBiz.com has learned it’s imminent that a second lawsuit alleging the Formula 1 race in Las Vegas caused local businesses to lose money will be filed soon.
After Ellis Island hotel-casino sued Formula 1 and Clark County in May, a group of four businesses is poised to sue the Las Vegas Grand Prix promoter and the county as well.
The business owners in the upcoming lawsuit have been very public about their assertions that the F1 race in November cost their businesses millions of dollars in revenue because of the traffic and access problems caused by the Las Vegas Grand Prix for as many as nine months leading up to the grand prix in November. The businesses are Ferraro’s Ristorante, Jay’s Market, Battista’s Hole in the Wall Restaurant and Tex Mex Tequila. (Disclosure: Jay’s Market advertises with LVSportsBiz.com.)
It was startling that Clark County commissioners granted permission to Liberty Media, which owns F1, to privatize 3.8 miles of public roads in the Strip corridor for the race. Commissioners said they were sold the idea of the F1 race on the Strip by LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority) head Steve Hill. The county failed to negotiate any compensation for allowing Formula 1 to use the 3.8 miles for the closed track.
The race’s road and lane closures caused the biggest disruption to transportation and commerce than any event in the history of Las Vegas, Clark County Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom has said.
There were various amounts of economic spending connected to the F1 race floated by the grand prix, the county and even MGM Resorts International. None of them explained their methodology behind the economic numbers and LVSportsBiz.com is not publishing their numbers because the parties failed to explain how they reached their economic numbers.
In the end, only high-end hotels owned by companies like MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment generated more money than usual for that November weekend and other hotels and businesses reported they lost revenues from the inaugural F1 race event in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix said it is reducing the disruptions on the Strip and other local race track roads from nine months before the race in 2023 to three months in 2024, while also trying to sell race event tickets that cost less this year than last year’s tickets.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix submitted a traffic plan to Clark County May 1, but the county is refusing to make the public document accessible to the public because the county is claiming it’s in draft form. LVSportsBiz.com has routinely reported on many draft reports and studies in other cities in the country, but Clark County is keeping this public document secret.
Formula 1 has come to Las Vegas in the past to hold a race. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told LVSportsBiz.com that F1 pitched the city of Las Vegas in 2019 on having a race in the city, but Goodman said local businesses did not want it. F1 also has talked to local officials in the past about having a race in Clark County, but those talks did not result in a grand prix event.
That was until F1 found a willing partner in LVCVA head Hill, who easily convinced Clark County commissioners to hand over the Strip and 3.8 miles of public roads to a sports event promoter for a private sports event in 2023.
