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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS. Nevada — Las Vegas’ publicly-funded tourism agency is poised to give $20 million to the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix for the 2026 and 2027 events in the Strip corridor.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors (LVCVA) placed the $20 million F1 sponsorship expenditure on Tuesday’s board meeting agenda.
The $20 sponsorship from the LVCVA to the Las Vegas Grand Prix literally has LVCVA CEO Steve Hill’s fingerprints (and signature) on this deal:
Hill has been a big proponent of the controversial F1 event that began in 2023 when local Strip commerce and traffic was interrupted to a level Las Vegas never saw before in that grand prix inaugural year.
In approving the F1 race along the region’s economic artery, Clark County commissioners never asked for compensation for allowing a private sports promoter to use 3.8 miles of public right-of-ways.
But Las Vegas Grand Prix President Emily Prazer told LVSportsBiz.com earlier this year that most F1 host cities actually pay F1 for the chance to host a grand prix race. The Las Vegas Grand Prix also backed off its request for $40 million from the county to pave the 3.8 miles of public roads used for the race.
In Year 2 in 2024, the 17-week installment and takedown of the 3.8-mile racetrack had a less negative impact.
F1 will start in September to install the track for the Nov. 20-22 race event in Year 3, working in sections around the route overnight. Even though the race lasts two hours on Nov. 22, it will take another month to dissemble the track’s barriers and light mounts.
The economic impacts deliver a split decision to Las Vegas as major hotel-casino properties on the circuit did better than usual revenues for that November weekend, while many small businesses lost money because customers either stayed away or were irritated by the troublesome effort it took to reach businesses.
The LVCVA spent about $33 million for Las Vegas to host Super Bowl 58 in Feb. 2024 and approved spending up to $35 million for Las Vegas to host the College Football Playoff (CFP) championship game in Jan. 2027.
In 2022, the LVCVA board approved a $19.5 million sponsorship for three years for F1 holding its race in the Strip corridor.
The LVCVA also approved in March 2023 spending $7 million on F1 race tickets for the las Vegas car race event.
A year ago, the LVCVA spent $12 million on an 18-month sponsorship deal with Formula One for 15 races over two F1 seasons.
So, the LVCVA has already spent nearly $39 million on F1, with public tourism board members expected to rubberstamp another $20 million tomorrow.
It’s difficult to determine the race’s exact financial net benefit to the Las Vegas market because while the tourists who come for the F1 race spend more than average visitors, there are also many businesses that lose money on grand prix weekend because non-F1 customers stay away from the Strip and Las Vegas. There’s much displacement of tourists, while businesses brace for the loss of revenue that weekend.
Las Vegas consultant Jeremy Aguero, who prepared the race’s economic numbers for both the Las Vegas Grand Prix and the LVCVA, told LVSportsBiz.com last week that economic losses caused by the race are factored into the impact numbers. Economists around the country argue the Las Vegas race impact numbers fail to include enough of the business losses.
Clark County’s approval of the Las Vegas Grand Prix triggered four lawsuits from businesses, which claimed the race cost them millions of dollars in revenues and that Clark County improperly fast-tracked race approvals and permits.
Former plaintiff Ellis Island casino settled its lawsuit against F1 and the county in March and actually became a race sponsor, so three remain.
For a controversial sports event that causes such bitter reactions among locals, it’s remarkable that there is little spirited public discussion by LVCVA board members and Clark County commissioners at their public meetings about the F1 event. The scant public discussion by elected officials on the F1 race would lead an impartial observer to believe that the race event is a done deal at the local governmental level.
Two of Clark County commission members — Jim Gibson and Michael Naft — sit on the LVCVA board and will likely approve the LVCVA’s $20 million sponsorship for F1 at Tuesday’s meeting.
For all the talk of Las Vegas growing quickly to a big market of 2.4 million people, major public policy decisions like whether a sports event should take over the Strip for days are done in a way typically seen in small, single-industry towns. In Las Vegas, the corporate hotel companies like MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn call the shots and the elected officials dutifully comply.
The LVCVA does the promotional work for the Strip’s hotels, so the casinos, in effect, determine public policy.
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