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After Clark County Government Lost $462,865 On Handling F1 Race Permit Applications in 2023, County Proposes New Sports and Special Events Department; Commission Hearing On Department Is Tuesday


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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer

After Clark County government lost $462,865 processing the Las Vegas Grand Prix’s permit paperwork for the inaugural F1 race on the Strip, the county has come up with a new idea to handle the race event application documents and red tape.

Clark County is proposing a new “Sports and Special Events Department.” The proposed department in county government is item 39 on the county commission meeting agenda Tuesday.

Five months ago, Clark County government staffers made public a debriefing report outlining the problems associated with a much-heralded and promoted car race that caused traffic problems and lost business revenues along the 3.8-mile race route in the Strip corridor.

County staff spent a stunning 17,059 hours on F1 race work, costing Clark County government $4,301,630.

The county department revenues from the F1 race amounted to $3,838,764.

That meant Clark County government itself lost $462,865 on a race event that was sold to local residents as an economic boon by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and LVCVA chief Steve Hill. Take a look at the net loss:

 

Here’s the county proposal for the new sports and event department.

Remarkably, Clark County commissioners approved a deal with the Liberty Media-owned Formula One promoter that hands over 3.8 miles of public roads and right-of-ways for free to the private race organizer.

The county commissioners appeared gullible and naive about non-validated economic spending numbers associated with a race event that cost many businesses in the Strip corridor millions of dollars in lost revenues and has sparked a lawsuit from a hotel-casino.

LVSportsBiz.com is not repeating event economic impact numbers put forth by the race promoter and boosters like the LVCVA and Clark County because there were multiple numbers that were publicized and the methodology behind all the numbers were neither explained nor validated by a third party source.

Clark County also refuses to make public a traffic report submitted by the Las Vegas Grand Prix to the county May 1. The race prep in 2023 created unprecedented traffic snarls and closed roads, but the county will not share the public traffic report document.

What is Clark County hiding?

Share your thoughts with the county commissioners at the 10 AM hearing.


 

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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