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On every flight out of the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, those who gaze from the window toward the Strip cannot miss Formula One’s presence.
At night, the bright red F1 logo sticks out from the top of the permanent pit building structure known as Grand Prix Plaza, even among the lights and neon of Las Vegas. A lasting reminder of F1’s commitment to its newest American race.
And from this year, those who look a little closer might spot something else on the roof: an ice rink.
“You would never see us do that anywhere else,” F1 and Las Vegas Grand Prix chief commercial officer Emily Prazer told select media, including The Athletic.
“But the intent is like, ‘how do we create more of an entertainment proposition?’”
Nowadays, F1 is about so much more than the on-track offering. Each race wants to be a spectacle that permeates beyond the sporting event itself, particularly in a city like Las Vegas that thrives on that kind of approach. It meant the show around the grand prix last year was, to the chagrin of some of the drivers, just as important as what was happening in the race.
Prazer said F1 took on the feedback over last year’s event, which was intentionally “very Vegas driven” given the buy-in of the local authorities and the major casinos. “It is a destination which commands entertainment, but we wanted the entertainment to be as good as the racing,” she said. While there was confidence it would be a good race, it meant F1 wanted to “overcompensate” with its off-track offering.
“We said, right, let us take it up 15 notches, which I think we did in year one,” Prazer said. “But the intent is to scale some of that back. We felt that we did too much. The Wednesday night (opening ceremony) was a one-off. I will never, ever be allowed to spend that amount of money again on a 30-minute show. We were nominated for an Emmy, but apart from that, it was a project in itself.”
The organizers in Las Vegas are planning a more toned-down affair for 2024. Prazer described it as “scaling back.” There won’t be another opening ceremony, nor will the Netflix Cup event that pitted F1 drivers up against professional golfers return, which Prazer admitted “didn’t really do a lot for the person coming to Vegas.”
Attention has turned to a more community-focused approach to try and make the grand prix more accessible – particularly to locals in Las Vegas, some of whom voiced their frustration over the pressures of the event, chiefly the disruption it caused to the roads in the months leading up to the race, in the first year.
A significant element of this will be the fan festival on the Friday and Saturday of the grand prix race weekend. F1 made 30,000 free tickets available each day. All were quickly snapped up at registration. The festival will incorporate the support paddock for the newly-announced Ferrari Challenge race and include a show run from F1 Academy. The aim is to bring more of a Super Bowl-style vibe to the F1 weekend.
“Vegas is notorious that, during major events, people flood there anyway,” Prazer said. “If you speak to anyone from Vegas, and the casinos as well, during a Super Bowl, it’s great that the Super Bowl was there, but they’re that busy during the Super Bowl anyway.
“We wanted to take the spirit of that and have the city be as busy as possible, even if people aren’t necessarily coming to the grand prix.”
The fan festival will allow those without race action tickets or simply curious about F1 to get a taste of the sport. The hope is that it will improve the accessibility of a race that drew criticism last year for the price of its tickets and the heavy focus on high-end hospitality – the most expensive suite cost $50,000 for the weekend last year – rather than catering to the more ‘traditional’ race fans. Prazer pointed out that tickets to the Las Vegas GP include unlimited food, saving fans money they would otherwise spend at other races.
The feedback nevertheless led to a ticket inventory adjustment for the second year as some hospitality options were replaced with around 5,000 general admission (GA) tickets.
“Initially, we were like, ‘right, it’s a big, sexy new event, we’re going to have a ton of hospitality,’” said Prazer. “We learned that lesson. We now have much more accessible tickets, GA zones, and something for everybody versus something for just the high end.”
Prazer did not anticipate the shift in ticketing approach would lead to a drop in revenue. “The cost of operating some of those hospitality structures is eye-watering,” she said. “So it will just balance itself out.”
It also does not mean there is an abandonment of the true ‘Vegas’ identity that F1 leaned into so heavily last year. “Each race having its own identity is something that I think is super important,” Prazer said. “If we ended up not going down the path of being totally Vegas and whatever, we may then have an impact on Austin, which is obviously all about Texas and BBQ and everything it should be.”
The ice rink will serve as another calling card for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, along with the paddock chapel or the slot machine sign over pit entry, that nowhere else can pull off in the same way. The ice rink addition is part of a crossover with the Las Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team planned for this year and trying to give those in the VIP Paddock Club an extra activity. “If you look at the size of the Paddock Club and make sure that you actually activate all the space, it was one of those ‘what do we do?’ ideas,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
In 2023, Las Vegas was about fun but also about F1 proving its concept could work and convincing locals that it was worth the disruption. According to a report commissioned by Clark County, the estimated economic impact of the event last year was $1.5 billion, surpassing that of the Super Bowl in February, which brought in around $1 billion.
But that did not stop disgruntled locals from voicing their concerns to local officials about the disruption caused, particularly in the repaving process on the roads that made up the circuit. The added difficulty of rerouting commutes or seeing door-to-door journeys swell in time made F1 a target, even at times when the work had nothing to do with the race.
Prazer said having that economic impact figure out in the public, and without the unknowns of a first event or the need to repeat much of last year’s work, the race would be “an easier sell” to locals this time around.
There remains a push for improvements from those in Las Vegas. Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick told Fox 5 Vegas in June that F1 had to improve going into 2024 or run the risk there “won’t be a third time.”
Prazer called Kirkpatrick a “legend” and welcomed her investment in the race. “She’s pushed us to be better, like making sure we submit plans and making sure we take them through it,” Prazer said. “Just making sure that they’re part of the process has been really important.” F1 entered a partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority this year and is working closer with the Clark County Commission to help improve communication with locals.
Over half a billion dollars deep into its investment, F1 is Las Vegas to stay. It made its statement with the glitzy debut last year. For 2024, it wants to cement itself as part of the community.
“Like anything, it just takes some time to grow and build and keep giving back,” Prazer said.
Top photo: Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire, David Becker/Formula 1, Chris Graythen/Formula 1 via Getty Images; Design: Meech Robinson/The Athletic
