The Las Vegas Grand Prix won’t be like any other race.
Formula 1 is perpetually in the business of walking the line between spectacle and sport, and its third concurrent race in the United States will be the biggest test of its resolve.
Next November F1 cars will zip past the city’s New World wonders — the Bellagio fountain, the Venetian hotel with its replica Venice landmarks, the pretend Eiffel Tower — turn left about a block north of the USA’s eighth busiest airport, snake back north past a giant spherical concert venue and then south of the obligatory golf course before rejoining the Strip.
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Racing down the famous Strip is an enormous coup in global sporting terms and shouldn’t be understated. It was barely three years ago that F1 was still struggling to regain a foothold in the United States after more than a decade of fumbling. Next year one of the nation’s best known cities will close its best known street for a three-day car racing festival.
F1 understands the significance of the achievement both for its own right and for brand value. In fact this is the first race of the modern era Formula 1 itself is running.
Other grands prix pay for the privilege of hosting Formula 1, much like cities or countries bid competitively to host the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup.
But to get the race off the ground in Las Vegas, Formula 1 has made itself the promoter. Running the race will be done entirely in house. All the risks — the risks that came close to killing Silverstone last decade, the risks that saw so many races in Asia drop off the calendar — will be borne by Formula 1.
And, as you can imagine, that doesn’t come cheaply.
The sport hosted a glittering big-budget launch party at the weekend to celebrate roughly one year to go before the first Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will take place next year on 16–18 November.
At around the same time the tickets for the race went on sale to the general public, with presale tickets having already been exhausted in the week leading up to the launch party.
They sold out within minutes.
That alone is remarkable, but it’s doubly so when you consider the cost punters were willing to pay to attend the first-ever race down the Strip.
The cheapest general admission tickets started at US$500 ($778) and got ticketholders three-day standing-room access near the back end of the circuit, where track visibility is currently uncertain.
If you wanted a seat, the cheapest sold for $3112. A ticket to the grandstand on the front straight would’ve set you back a whopping $3890.
Any fans still hoping to go will have to stump up for a VIP hospitality pass, which are currently selling for $12,090.
There are also package resale deals available, including from some of the hotels along the Strip. MGM bought $20 million worth of tickets ahead of time. It’s bundling them in packages worth up to $155,500.
The Washington Post has reported some packages will cost up to $1.5 million.
Hotel prices, as you may have expected, have also skyrocketed, with MGM saying the price of a room at a Vegas hotel has risen by an average of 300 per cent for the grand prix weekend.
Las Vegas TV station 8 News Now has reported some hotels have jacked up prices by as much as 678 per cent.
Put simply, this isn’t a race for those faint of heart or light of wallet.
HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO OTHER RACES?
A race in Las Vegas was always going to be eye-wateringly expensive to attend, and prospective racegoers even had warning via the ticket prices for the first Miami Grand Prix earlier this year.
General admission tickets just for Sunday sold for $777 in Florida. The cheapest grandstand ticket was worth around $1000, and a ticket for a seat along the main straight cost a staggering $2613.
Vegas and Miami are comfortably the most expensive ordinary tickets on the F1 calendar, putting aside hospitality and VIP packages.
For comparison, even the United States Grand Prix in Austin — which has carved out a niche for itself as the hardcore F1 fan’s grand prix alongside its glitzier Miami and Vegas rivals — offered considerably cheaper prices.
Getting a general admission ticket in Texas for the entire weekend cost around $500 this year. The cheapest bleacher seats cost $550, while tickets along the main straight start at $1126 — less than half the cost of a similar seat in Miami and less than a third of the cost of the same in Vegas.
That’s around par for the course on the grand prix tour.
Silverstone charges similar prices over three days, with general admission going for $562, the cheapest grandstand seats selling for $632 and a seat on the main straight starting at $1126.
Monaco, which is expected to increase ticket prices next year, has sold two-day grandstand seats for around the $1000 mark, depending on where exactly you were sitting.
The Singapore Grand Prix, originally billed as Asia’s answer to Monaco, sold its cheapest grandstand for approximately $329, though the best seats would set you back around $1300.
The Australian Grand Prix comes in very much at the cheaper end of the scale, with four-day general admission selling for just $189 last year and the most expensive grandstand seats costing around $600. That’s not bad considering Melbourne is generally regarded by F1 as among the best run races on the calendar, even considering Las Vegas’s flagship status.
HOW CAN F1 CHARGE SO MUCH?
Formula 1’s first major foray into event promotion hasn’t resulted in some of the most expensive tickets in grand prix history by accident. The tickets were set at that level because the sport knew that they’d all sell.
In fact most races this season were sold out. Even the Australian Grand Prix ran out of tickets, and that’s held in a giant park with virtually unlimited space for general admission.
Formula 1 is experiencing a boom in popularity the likes of which it’s never seen before. Demand for the sport is extraordinarily high, particularly in the United States.
Consider this: in 2019 the United States Grand Prix sold 268,000 tickets across three days. This year it attracted a capacity 440,000 people. Next year it’s targeting half a million spectators over three days, which would eclipse the 520,000 who turned up over four days to the final grand prix in Adelaide.
Tickets for this year’s Austin race sold out in 24 hours. Tickets for the Miami Grand Prix sold out in 40 minutes. Local media reported all grandstand seats in Vegas sold out in minutes.
The tickets were expensive, but in this sentence ‘were’ is the operative word. Clearly enough fans thought they were reasonably priced that they’re now all gone.
“Formula 1 has a certain positioning with regard to the kind of sport it is,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali told AP. “We are going to deliver the greatest spectacle in the world as a statement of F1. That needs to be recognised, and in terms of price positioning, we are going to be on the top side because this is Las Vegas and that is the nature of the customer coming to Las Vegas.
“There will be possibilities for people who want to pay less, to spend less. As always in life, it is the market pulling the price and then on our side is the responsibility to bring a great event.”
The event has said more tickets will go on sale in the coming months.
We’re seeing tangible evidence of the reason Formula 1 is holding three grand prix in the United States next year, bringing the total in North America to five alongside Canada and Mexico.
There’s also clearly room for that footprint to grow.
No two races in the United States are closer than 1700 kilometres from one another, and the two closest races on the North American continent are more than 1200 kilometres apart.
For reference, the westernmost European race in Silverstone is less than 1500 kilometres from the easternmost race in Budapest, between which there were another eight grands prix this year. The scales are completely different.
North America has around 75 per cent of Europe’s population but will have only half as many grands prix. Races aren’t doled out based on population, but with F1 enjoying an enormous popularity swing across the Atlantic, there’s a strong argument to be made that the continent can handle — and would indeed embrace — more than it’s currently been dealt
Las Vegas might be over the top. Ticket prices might be embarrassingly high. The event might prove too tacky and not last beyond its three-year contract.
But as a crucial test of the depth of US interest, it’s worked exactly as F1 would’ve hoped. The next question is how much deeper that interest is.
And, crucially, what races will make way to expand F1’s western horizon.
