Few people are prepared to travel to Las Vegas by car or airplane to watch Formula 1 racers compete for survival.
Insiders are concerned that the once-ascendent sport is suddenly running out of gas as the international racing circuit prepares for a major three-day event in Sin City starting on Thursday. So far, meager ticket sales, low hotel room occupancy, and an overall lack of buzz have raised concerns.
The release of Netflix’s docuseries “Drive to Survive” in 2019 gave F1 a significant boost by providing new viewers with an intimate glimpse of the high drama that goes on behind the scenes in the sport. F1 executives took advantage of the sudden popularity quickly, transforming US events into legitimate sporting events. For instance, the Miami Grand Prix last year saw ticket prices soar to $32,000 on the secondary market and brought in an estimated $400 million for the local economy. Not bad, given that Super Bowl LIV brought in about $572 million when it was held in Miami almost four years ago.
F1 quickly filled its 2023 schedule with three more events in the US, more than any other host nation, with races held in Miami in May and in Austin last month. But the Vegas double-down may just end up going bust:
- Face-value tickets were still available on Wednesday for all three days of the event, despite vows from Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm that it would sell out. Resale tickets are going for as low as $119 for a single-day pass, less than half of where they stood a month ago, according to TickPick.
- Meanwhile, hotels on the Strip, where the race is taking place, have returned to selling rooms at average weekend rates, after blocking off rooms to upsell in anticipation of the event, Bloomberg reports
- Tailspin: TickPick co-CEO Brett Goldberg told Bloomberg that “when this event was first announced it had Super Bowl-level expectations in terms of demand.” “However, it appears that the idea of a race on the Strip was more alluring than the event itself.” Put another way, it’s possible that F1’s US expansion was too much, too fast, too furious, and too early.
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