Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix finally hits the Strip on Saturday night after months of local construction headaches and unprecedented hype for the penultimate race of the 2023 season.

With a 10-year contract in place to race in Sin City through 2032 and an estimated $500 million spent on creating a permanent paddock, F1’s intentions are crystal clear. 

“I don’t think we would have built the building and invested how much we have into this if it wasn’t part of the plans for the long term,” Las Vegas GP chief commercial officer Emily Prazer told Front Office Sports. 

When the grand prix is over and the grandstands come down, the paddock will remain as “the home of Formula 1 in North America,” Prazer says, with a year-round merchandise store and various fan experiences.

But while F1 is bullish on its Vegas future, getting to this point hasn’t been easy. Local disruption has been so great that Greg Maffei, president and CEO of F1 owner Liberty Media, apologized to residents for the major construction inconveniences. Prazer points out that future iterations could be easier, as F1 won’t be completely repaving the strip every year.

Max Not Impressed

Regardless of what future versions might look like, one driver in particular — three-time world champion Max Verstappen — didn’t hold back when it came to sharing his thoughts about the overall quality of the racing at the 3.8-mile street circuit. “The scenery will look great, driving through the strip, but the layout itself is not the most exciting,” said Verstappen, who noted that the race is “99% show and 1% sporting event.”

Vegas is unique in that F1 itself promotes the grand prix — usually, that falls to local organizers. Prazer, who was previously an F1 executive in London, cites the short amount of time to prepare since formally announcing the race in March 2022 as one of the main challenges endured by the staff, which ultimately grew into a 90-person operation.

After this weekend, Prazer says evaluation will include a “brutally honest” look and what worked and what didn’t. “It’s very clear to everybody what the growth and ambition is for us — particularly in Las Vegas, but in North America, where we want to continue to keep building the fan base and impressing everyone,” she said.

But for now, let the racing begin.

A year ago, perhaps the clearest signs of the anticipation surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix were the eye-popping ticket prices, with initial grandstand seats typically selling for $2,000 to $2,500.

Fast-forward to race week, and those tickets can be had for less than $1,000, with get-in pricing briefly hovering around $800.

Extending a market freefall that has been many days in the making, resale prices for this week’s qualifying races and the Saturday race itself have plunged by roughly half just in the last month, according to ticket marketplace TickPick.

“It was a difficult decision on go-to-market pricing, but the public has spoken this year,” said Brett Goldberg, TickPick CEO.

Despite prior predictions by F1 of a sellout, tickets also remain freely available on the primary market, in part reflecting how seven-figure corporate hospitality packages were faring far better than regular tickets in many instances. 

Get-in pricing five weeks ago:

• Friday – $825
• Saturday – $1,645

Get-in pricing now:

• Friday – $276
• Saturday – $995

“The electric atmosphere under the neon glow of the Vegas Strip is experiencing a market cool-down,” wrote Vincenzo Landino in the F1 newsletter “The Qualifier.”

Contributing Factors

The diminishing interest in attending the highly touted event is owed to several factors. 

Perhaps most saliently for racing fans, this season’s championship has long since been clinched, with Max Verstappen having won 15 of the last 16 races, in turn removing any competitive drama.

Temperatures for the 10 p.m. PT race are no longer expected to challenge F1’s lowest-ever mark of 41 degrees Fahrenheit at a Montreal race in 1978, and should stay at least a few degrees above that mark. But the late-night viewing will still be chilly by local standards.

Many Las Vegas-area residents are also feeling ire toward the race after many months of traffic headaches and other local inconvenience related to race-related repaving and track construction. 

American Formula 1 fans are no stranger to less-than-friendly viewing hours. The global circuit routinely starts races early in the morning and in the middle of the night for U.S. time zones.

That will be the case again this weekend, despite the race taking place on American soil. 

Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix begins at 10 p.m. local time, resulting in a 1 a.m. ET broadcast on ESPN. And after record years in 2021 and 2022, viewership on ESPN platforms in the U.S. is down about 9% this year — with two races left — to an average of 1.1 million viewers.

The U.S. viewership decline could be attributed to Red Bull’s dominance, but the sport has been prone to competitive imbalance — Red Bull or Mercedes have won the constructors and drivers championships every year since 2010. The 2021 battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for the drivers’ championship was the only competitive fight in recent memory.

ESPN is reportedly paying $85 million annually for the U.S. rights to F1 races and is treating the Vegas GP just like it would a major championship event or league all-star game. ABC’s “Good Morning America” will be live from Las Vegas on Friday morning, while ESPN also has talent in town for various “SportsCenter” duties and pre-race content.

Should ESPN want to renew with F1 beyond 2025, it will likely have plenty of competitors. During the most recent negotiations, Netflix reportedly showed interest in acquiring F1 rights on the heels of its continued success with the “Drive to Survive” docuseries. Amazon and NBC were also among potentially interested parties.

A venue that wasn’t even designed and built for sports has become a focal point of the Las Vegas Grand Prix — even before the race actually happens. 

The $2.3 billion Sphere, the next-generation venue developed by New York Knicks and Rangers owner James Dolan, is playing several prominent roles during race week.

The venue is right along the race course, with a key grandstand set up just outside the venue and drivers going around the Sphere at turns five through nine. 

The Sphere itself is being used for F1 hospitality in an area sponsored by T-Mobile. And the venue’s famous exosphere is being used not only for various race-related advertising campaigns, including those of Aston Martin and Heineken, but also real-time pole positions.

“This is one of the world’s premier sporting events, and we are ready to showcase [the] Sphere to our global audience via F1 — both in person in Las Vegas, and watching around the world,” said Joel Fisher, MSG Entertainment executive vice president for marquee events and operations. 

There has been a key modification to the Sphere for the race, though. Red, yellow, and blue colors will not be displayed, so as to not invite misinterpretation by drivers during competition. 

Surging Interest

F1’s use of the Sphere reflects a fast-growing interest in the immersive venue by sports properties. 

After the Sphere initially garnered widespread attention from the start of U2’s ongoing run of shows there, UFC quickly secured a 2024 date there, and other sports properties are expected to follow.