by VALERIO BARRETTA
Las Vegas, a fruitful investment
With Las Vegas Formula 1 has bet money (a lot) and face. The Circus, promoter of the GP for the occasion, invested almost 500 million dollars to ensure that the Nevada race was an unmissable event. And, from the data on tickets and economic impact, it seems that everyone gained.
The numbers of Las Vegas
The Circus announced that 316 thousand tickets were sold for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, while each guest of the race spent an average of 4,100 dollars, four times more than an average visitor to the city of sin, contributing to the exorbitant figure of 60 million of dollars of revenue from the Visitor Tax. Hotel room revenues increased 34% in November compared to November 2022, while Clark County recorded an all-time high in gaming revenues, with $152 million more than the previous year. From a television perspective, the Las Vegas GP was the most watched F1 event of the year, with 2.7 billion viewers from all over the world.
The public success has caused an economic impact of “over half a billion dollars“, as Applied Analysis director Jeremy Aguero said. But if you think about the ripple effect, the number goes up even more: “An important part concerns salaries, wages, payments to all types of suppliers, therefore the overall figure exceeds 800 million dollars“. A number that is, however, based on a preliminary report: the economic impact of the GP could increase further.
The criticisms
The race was preceded by much criticism, promoted first and foremost by the local population, who accused F1 of wanting to extort money from them by asking astronomical sums to be able to broadcast the race in public places. In the run-up to the GP, the choice to race at night with a temperature close to zero was harshly criticized – with more than valid reasons – with all the consequences relating to the safety of the riders. Luckily there was “only” one major accident in the race, that of Lando Norris, while the GP proved to be spectacular with the record for overtaking and the award for the most beautiful maneuver of the year, that of Charles Leclerc on Sergio Perez .
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