As uniquely positioned as Las Vegas was to host a global spectacle like Formula 1, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention how challenging it turned out to be.
Building a 17-turn Grand Prix circuit on and around the Las Vegas Strip, a major city arterial that draws tens of thousands of vehicles and pedestrians daily, proved to be a painful endeavor. The months-long construction leading up to the race crippled commutes, leaving hospitality workers frustrated and small businesses struggling from the disruptions. It also didn’t help that tourists and locals felt shut out from the race due to pricey tickets and obstructed views on pedestrian bridges.
By the standards of Vegas hospitality, it wasn’t always a good look. But one thing Vegas knows how to do well is to learn from its missteps.
“Like all major special events that get stood up in this town, it takes a little while to get your sea legs,” says Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president of corporate affairs for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. “You can go in with the best event production, the best experience and the best intentions as you work with all the public agencies in town, and you certainly don’t have an instruction manual. There had never been anything like that undertaken throughout the destination in the history books.”
It really hadn’t, not since Las Vegas last hosted a Formula 1 race in 1981. And to its credit, last year’s Grand Prix still did great. The inaugural race further elevated Las Vegas on the global sporting stage, drew 315,000 spectators and raked in an estimated $1.2 billion in economic impact.
Coming into year two, Nelson-Kraft says the organizers set out to improve on virtually every pain point of F1 to allow it to come back “in a much gentler, easier way.” One of the first orders of business has been expanding communication with the community and collaborating more closely with local agencies like the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC).
“I feel like we’re on better footing than the first year,” says Theresa Gaisser, senior director of Freeway and Arterial Systems of Transportation (FAST) at RTC. “The first year, I think we all recognized that there were a lot of disruptions and impacts due to the extensive track paving that was necessary to pull off that first year and really get this course set up. So this year, while we’ve been in meetings probably since spring, I do think that what this has allowed us to do is to go back and have a good debrief about things that worked really well from last year’s race and then really emphasize where we can make some changes.”
Gaisser says the goal has been to communicate “early and often” with local riders in order to instill “more confidence and reliability” when it comes to navigating the city during F1. The RTC’s website currently offers real-time bus detours and delay alerts. But so far, F1’s construction schedule has taken a lot of pain out of the process.
“Paving for the inaugural year was a huge undertaking. With that out of the equation, it dramatically reduced the circuit preparations by 65% in overall time,” Nelson-Kraft says. “The majority of the circuit preparations have been taking place in the overnight hours, and so the majority of our community is, thankfully, sleeping. Then we worked with the properties, with those who have overnight hours and shifts there, to make sure that we were communicating any lane reductions or traffic impacts.”
F1 organizers also created an interactive website to show where construction is happening in real time, so commuters can plan ahead. During race week last year, many hospitality workers utilized the Las Vegas Monorail to get to their properties and they’ll do so again, with the added benefit of park and ride locations, where they can reserve spots at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Rio or the Orleans and then take the monorail or use a shuttle to get to work.
The temporary vehicular bridge on Flamingo Road and Koval Lane also drew plenty of ire from nearby businesses last year. Nelson-Kraft says the bridge has been reduced from four lanes to two, reducing installation and dismantling times and improving access to surrounding businesses.
In an effort to utilize more local labor and provide opportunity, organizers set up a local business networking directory that’s been shared with racing teams and their business partners. The directory features more than 100 pre-vetted local businesses, ranging from caterers and security companies to local restaurants.
Last year, the Super Bowl Host Committee worked with the NFL on something similar.
Nelson-Kraft says F1 missed a crucial opportunity last year to introduce itself to the community. This time, the team has fought to earn back local engagement. One way to do that has been offering tickets at a more accessible price point, with one-day general admission. Recently, F1 also gifted more than 600 tickets to “extraordinary locals and organizations” in the community. The organizers will also host the Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience, an daytime event that offers “the thrill of F1 without necessarily needing a ticket,” Nelson-Kraft says. A dozen Clark County School District students, who competed in an art contest, will also have their artwork featured near the entrance of the South Koval Zone and be honored at the fan experience.
Those efforts, plus having volunteers from Clark County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates and youth from the nonprofit First Nevada present during the National Anthem should allow F1 to finally feel like our race. “With every year, I think the momentum is going to continue to build,” Nelson-Kraft says. “It’s a great addition for Las Vegas.”
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