F1 Las Vegas Race Tour: Let’s Check Grand Prix Road Work Along Entire 3.8-Mile Route
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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Less than 24 hours ago, I took a bicycle ride along the 3.8-mile Formula One race circuit that covers a healthy section of the Strip plus other neighboring roads.
As I pedaled along Wednesday afternoon and saw the grandstands being assembled, the light mount poles standing along public sidewalks and fencing being installed, I repeated to myself: “How can Clark County commissioners justify handing over what is basically a 3.8-mile linear stadium for free to a private event promoter?”
I have covered the business of sports and stadium nationwide for the last 25 years and I have not seen a local government get fleeced backing a sports event more than Clark County government with the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Here a picture showing the F1 light poles on a sidewalk along Koval Lane.
The road race event is Nov. 21-23, so there’s still quite a bit of track setup to go. It includes Clark County and F1 installing a temporary bridge spanning Koval Lane that financially crushed Jay’s Market at the northwest Flamingo-Koval corner.
The biggest race prep work so far has been done along Harmon Avenue. Let’s take a look:
The race financially helped the elite hotels like Bellagio and Wynn to generate more revenue than usual for that race weekend than usual in 2023, but the event also financially hurt other businesses like four that have filed legal complaints against the county and Las Vegas Grand Prix. Two more lawsuits against Clark County and F1 are expected.
The inaugural race was nine months of hardship for workers and tourists of the Strip. The entire race course had to be paved in addition to converting the 3.8-mile circuit into a glamourous car race spectacle. Hundreds of workers in the Strip corridor had their commutes extended by hours and some told county commissioners that the traffic and closed roads were so bad they didn’t bother show up for work.
County Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom told LVSportsBiz.com earlier this year that no event affected Las Vegas more than this race. Downtown Las Vegas hotel properties reported they saw no financial benefits from the F1 event, which is why the LVCVA is throwing a bone to downtown Las Vegas with a music event during the F1 race weekend.
The Bellagio, however, benefitted. And work on fancy suites and grandstands in front of their property has meant a closed lane on Las Vegas Boulevard. Take a look:
With all the grief caused by the Las Vegas Grand Prix, why does local government continue to allow the sports promoter to take months to alter and affect the most important economic road in the region?
Well, F1 has built a half-million-dollar paddock building off Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane that is filled with fancy food/drink clubs plus the car garages on the ground level at the core of the 3.8-mile circuit.
Clark County’s seven commissioners drank the economic boon-flavored Kool-Aid served up by Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) head Steve Hill and his trusty consultant sidekick and buddy, Jeremy Aguero, who supplied spending numbers related to the race.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix had no where to go but up in 2024. How could it get any worse from the inaugural race event?
The pre-race track preparation disruptions are going from to nine months in 2023 to three months in 2024.
And the race heard the complaints loud and clear that F1 was a MIA in the community in 2023 when it came to connecting to the Las Vegas public.
This year, the race is trying to change the sour PR taste from 2023 by doling out back-to-school supplies to kids and giving free tickets to locals, including a 16-year-old Coronado High School who will attend the race thanks to a Make-a-Wish Southern Nevada arrangement with F1.
The grand prix a few months ago also hired PR staffer Lori Nelson-Kraft, to help improve the race’s dreary public image after F1 hammered the Strip corridor with traffic snarls and access problems that costs local businesses millions of dollars in 2023. Nelson-Kraft, whose official title is senior vice president, corporate affairs at F1 Las Vegas, had worked at the LVCVA under Hill and at Station Casinos before the LVCVA.
During LVSportsBiz.com’s mid-afternoon bicycle ride Wednesday, there were not the traffic jams and closed roads that we all saw a year ago.
Here’s a look on Sands Avenue, across from the Sands expo convention center.
LVSportsBiz.com has talked with hundreds of people about the glamorous road race. For people not promoting the race, the consensus is that the race is welcome in Las Vegas but it should be staged in an area that didn’t hurt so many businesses, workers and locals.
The city of Las Vegas rejected F1’s attempt at putting on a race in downtown. And the LVCVA — before Hill’s tenure — also did not think it was a wise idea to hand over the Strip for months on end to a private sports event promoter.
But here we are. With closed lanes, concrete barriers and fencing for a 50-lap, 90-minute car race in the very heart of the Strip.
Some won in 2023. But many lost the first time around.
Take your own tour. If you’re not a fan of cars that go fast at a fancy sports event, you’ll probably just ask yourself, “Why?”
