F1 Folly On The Strip: How Local County Government Allowed A Private Sports Promoter To Fleece Las Vegas; County Scores F (1) Grade
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Maybe Clark County commissioners handing over 3.8 miles of public roads, including the region’s economic engine, to a private sports promoter for free was not the best idea.
Because here come the lawsuits.
Three different businesses in the Strip corridor that say were financially crushed by the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November have sued Liberty Media-owned Formula 1 and Clark County.
After Ellis Island hotel-casino filed a lawsuit against F1 and the county in May, Battista’s Hole in the Wall restaurant and Stage Door Casino filed a complaint against the duo Tuesday.
“This case is about wrongful interference with business rights and the unlawful interference with, and taking of, Plaintiffs’ property interests and property rights for which Plaintiffs are entitled to compensation,” the Battista’s-Stage Door 32-page complaint argued.
“Defendants transformed the public rights of way abutting and/or adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip into a 3.8-mile racetrack, and have plans to continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” the legal document said.
A common theme between the Ellis Island and Battista’s/Stage Door lawsuits was that Clark County improperly fast-tracked permits and approvals while allowing the Las Vegas Grand Prix to severely limit access for customers to reach businesses.
Battista’s and Stage Door “are completely dependent on the public rights of way that F1 and the County caused to effectively shut down for months,” according to the lawsuit filed by the law firm of Holley Driggs in District Court.
The lawsuit alleges Battista’s lost 200 customers a day because of the months of road and race prep work leading up to the 90-minute race in November.
At one point, F1 constructed a fence around Stage Door and Battista’s. — Lawsuit filed against F1 and Clark County Sept. 3
Clark County, incredibly, did not even negotiate a deal with the Las Vegas Grand Prix to receive payment for allowing the private race promoter to privatize 3.8 miles of roads and public right-of-ways in the artery of the region’s economic engine.
Instead, the county commissioners allowed a handful of giant hotels like Bellagio, Venetian and Caesar’s to make more money than usual for that weekend, while turning Las Vegas’ most valuable roads into a private race course at the expense of local businesses like restaurants and retail shops.
This year, the Las Vegas Grand Prix said a preparation period that lasted a mind-boggling nine months in 2023 will be reduced to a 17-week period of prep and dismantling in 2024.
For the inaugural race, there were limited community benefits doled out.
The first year was such a community disaster that the Las Vegas Grand Prix tried to patch things up in Year 2 by handing out some free tickets to locals and making donations to some local charities. But the race promoter’s first instinct in Year 1 was to come to Las Vegas and profit as much as possible from the race with giving as little as possible to Las Vegas locals.
It was only after the PR mess did the Las Vegas Grand Prix decide to hand out free tickets, contributions and back-to-school donations in Year 2.
If there was one takeaway from F1 does Las Vegas is that the Strip’s big hotel companies like MGM Resorts International, Caesar’s Entertainment and Wynn Las Vegas run Las Vegas, the county commissioners rubberstamp the big hotels’ wishes and the LVCVA functions as the promotion arm of the big hotel companies.
F1 is Clark County’s grade for the way it handled the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Battista’s/Stage Door lawsuit could not put it better. Read on:
Nobody said that F1 should not come to Las Vegas. But most locals said the location of the Las Vegas Grand Prix is wrong.
The other two F1 races in the United States in Austin, Texas and Miami are far from those regions’ business centers. In fact, the F1 Miami event is at the Miami Dolphins NFL stadium.
F1 asked the city of Las Vegas to host a race. The city said no. And F1 has also approached the LVCVA in previous years before current public tourism agency head Steve Hill took over the helm. The F1 was told in previous years that the economic lifeblood of the area, the Strip, would not be handed over for free.
Las Vegas locals were never opposed to F1. They were opposed to the location.
But Hill told the county it would make money for the hotels and the county commissioners gave away public streets for a 3.8-mile-long private race course with a few hotels cashing in.
And you have something else.
Lawsuits.
And more are expected next week.
