Controversial F1 Race On Strip Divides Las Vegas; County Commission Chairman Says Clark County Needs To Determine If Race Is Worth Months Of Disruptions, Business Losses
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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip, though the F1 race barriers and fencing made it difficult to reach the business.
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Some loved the car race. Others cursed it.
No other major sports event divided Las Vegas like the second Las Vegas Grand Prix that ended late Saturday night.
The promoter, Liberty Media-owned Formula One, staged a high-end sports event that attracted rich fans from Europe that was the big calling card for the LVCVA public tourism agency and its CEO, Steve Hill, who was also chief Las Vegas booster of this highly controversial race. Celebrities like to attend, too.
The event took place on 3.8 miles of public roads, but it was privatized for months with the blessing of the Clark County commissioners who say the money brought in by visitors was worth the months of aggravation, disruptions and financial losses to local homegrown businesses. Clark County handed over the region’s economic lifeblood roads to a private promoter who, in essence, created a 3.8-mile linear stadium by selling grandstand tickets at a central pit building and around the circuit. It should be noted the city of Las Vegas had said no to F1 because the city’s downtown did not want the disruptions to commerce and road transportation.
As Clark County Commissioner Chairman Tick Segerblom put it months ago to LVSportsBiz.com, no other event had a bigger impact on Las Vegas in history than this road race on public right-of-ways that took over the Strip and surrounding roads in a disruptive scale never seen before.
The F1 race stripped bear the naked truth about Las Vegas: Clark County commissioners and government staff cared more about serving big hotel-casinos like Bellagio and Wynn than protecting restaurants and other small businesses that were financially brutalized by the F1 event.
While F1 and the county will undoubtedly crow about tourist spending, professional economists who understand the details and nuances of economic impacts will say the bloated impact numbers fail to consider vital factors like the many visitors who stayed away from Las Vegas because of the F1 event crowds/closed roads/traffic and the displacement of spending in this one-trick-pony, tourism-based economy.
This we know: the economic numbers publicized by F1 are not net income to this market. They fail to consider millions of dollars in business losses and hours lost by workers who have jobs in the Strip corridor.
F1 included the $500 million it said it spent to build its paddock building at Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue. It included that number in its economic impact hype. Investing in a building is typically not included in an event’s economic number and if it was the Fontainebleau Las Vegas hotel-casino had a much bigger impact on the Las Vegas economy because that building cost $3.7 billion to construct — more than seven times the cost of building F1’s pit structure.
LVSportsBiz.com also reported that there are some key leaders in Las Vegas who would like to see the F1 race staged at the sprawling site of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway instead of in the Strip corridor. We also had an informal poll on X regarding the site of the F1 race in Las Vegas.
In Year 2 of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the average ticket price was down from the inaugural event in Nov. 2023 and so was attendance.
Formula One came to Las Vegas in 2023 and immediately became persona non grata for attempting to shake down businesses with a view of the track for $1,500 per customer and even Clark County for $40 million for paving the 3.8 miles of road surfaces along Las Vegas Boulevard, Harmon Avenue, Koval Lane and Sands Avenue. F1 backed off in both cases after a very harsh response from Las Vegas locals.
But four businesses have filed lawsuits against both F1 and Clark County, alleging they lost millions of dollars of revenues and claiming the county fast-tracked the race’s permit approvals and improperly processed the various event applications. The county’s debriefing report later said Clark County actually lost more than $460,000 in handling F1’s event permits.
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.
This social media spoke for many in Las Vegas:
In Year 2, F1 hired a PR person from the LVCVA and gave away free tickets to some locals to bolster its public image after it built a meager community connection for the inaugural race event in 2023.
There were less traffic jams related to the race prep this year, but there is still a 17-week traffic plan that will include weeks of dismantling the track until Christmas.
So, Formula One race disruptions in the Strip corridor will continue well past Saturday night’s race.
A strange and bizarre part of the Clark County government’s involvement was that the county commissioners approved the race without receiving any compensation from F1 for using the 3.8 miles of public roads that were converted into a lit-up highway where the missiles on four wheels zoomed down the Strip at 215 mph.
F1 fans enjoyed the spectacle.
But most local residents and non-fans voiced anger over the race’s disruptions. LVSportsBiz.com spoke with many local residents who said the race is OK, but it’s staged in a bad location.
It’s bizarre that a local government would allow a sports promoter to privatize the geographic economic heart of a region so that a few high-end hotel properties could make more money than usual on a weekend before Thanksgiving that typically along the slowest of the calendar.
But the corporate hotel companies dictate policy to the county commissioners and the LVCVA tourism agency. So if Strip-area businesses and workers have to be sacrificed, so be it. Now, the county and F1 are dealing with those lawsuits.
The Las Vegas market operates like a small town. The local industry — hotels — runs the show. And sadly, the elected politicians lack the backbone and will to stand up to the corporate hotel companies.
After Saturday night’s 50-lap, 90-minute race that involved 20 race cars, the dismantling will begin on Las Vegas Boulevard, Harmon Avenue, Koval Lane and Sands Avenue.
LAS VEGAS BOULEVARD
- Lane reductions on Las Vegas Boulevard between Fashion Show Drive to Spring Mountain from 1AM-9A from Nov 27- Dec 2
- 24-hour lane restrictions on Las Vegas Boulevard from 9PM Nov 24 to 9PM Nov 27 for removing track barriers. The lane closures will vary in location with one lane remaining open in each direction during the closure. Nightly lane restrictions on Las Vegas Boulevard from midnight – 9AM Dec 1-6 with one lane remaining in each direction during the closures for track lighting removal. Left turn lane impacts continue on Las Vegas Boulevard.
- The dismantling of the private Bellagio Fountain Club is Nov 24 – Dec 27 with two southbound lane closures on Las Vegas Boulevard from Flamingo Road to Bellagio Drive. Entrance and egress of the Bellagio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino will remain open.
- Dismantle activities for Fashion Show will take place from 1AM until 9AM Nov 27 and Dec 2. Two southbound lanes will be closed on Las Vegas Boulevard from Fashion Show Drive to Spring Mountain.
SANDS AVENUE
- 24-hour lane restrictions on Sands Avenue will take place from 9PM Nov 24 – 9PM Nov 27 to remove track barriers, track lighting and SAFER barriers. One lane remains open in each direction during the closure.
KOVAL LANE
- Sidewalk closures on Koval Lane from Dec. 6-20 for dismantling the Flamingo Pedestrian Bridge.
HARMON AVE
- There will be nightly lane restrictions on Harmon Avenue from 9PM-6AM Sunday through Friday, Dec 1- 6, for track barrier removal. The lane closures will vary in location, with one lane in each direction remaining open during the closures. Lane restrictions at the intersection of Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane will be removed due to the dismantling of barriers along Harmon Avenue.
- Nightly closure of Harmon Avenue at Audrie Street from 9PM–8AM Sunday – Friday, Dec 1-13, for dismantling the Audrie vehicular bridge. The intersection will be open on weekends (Friday morning to Sunday night). All left turn movements at Harmon Avenue and Audrie Street intersection will be eliminated. Flaggers will be provided at all hours during the closure to actively manage traffic at the intersection.
