Ticket, Hotel Prices Plummet As Las Vegas GP Nears

The inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix is still eight days away, but there’s already been a crash — in the race’s market for tickets and hotel rooms.

After the highly anticipated Formula 1 race initially set jaw-dropping ticket and hospitality prices, get-in pricing on the secondary market has fallen by more than a third in the last month, and grandstand seats for the race can now be had for about $1,000.

Even more dramatically, motorsports website Oversteer48.com found about 10,000 unsold tickets in the grandstands constructed at Las Vegas’ Sphere and the course’s East Harmon Zone when analyzing Ticketmaster data.

“That’s a huge amount for an F1 event, especially considering there’s a whole bunch of other grandstands I couldn’t get data for,” wrote the site’s Alex Gassman. 

Hotel rooms have seen a similar drop, with average prices falling by about a quarter in the last month to about $283 per night — in some cases, by half those of a year ago. 

A key element in the dampening enthusiasm is the lack of competitive drama surrounding the race. Top driver Max Verstappen clinched this year’s F1 championship last month, and the Dutch superstar has won 15 of F1’s last 16 races.

Operational Concerns

A potentially large disruption to the upcoming race was averted this week as resort operators Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, and Wynn Resorts reached tentative labor deals with the union that represents more than 35,000 cooks, food servers, bartenders, housekeepers, and other workers at 18 major casinos in town. 

The product of seven months of negotiations, the pacts will avert a threatened strike and provide what is described as “historic” wage increases for employees and reduced workloads.

Meanwhile, weather remains a concern for the race, with early forecasts suggesting a heightened chance of rain and temperatures for the 10 p.m. PT race expected to challenge F1’s lowest-ever mark of 41 degrees Fahrenheit at a Montreal race in 1978.