Las Vegas Grand Prix ‘went exceptionally well,’ says LVCVA leader

Coming off what Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority executives are calling the most successful special event ever staged in Southern Nevada — the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix — organizers are now turning their attention to Super Bowl 58 in February.

“What they (the Formula One team) were able to accomplish in 16 months with obviously the entire city supporting that effort was really remarkable,” LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill told the board of directors in its last meeting at its current board room. “It was the most difficult thing we’ve ever done but the event itself went exceptionally well.”

The LVCVA staff ticked off a list of best-ever statistics with much of the focus on how good the city looked to a global audience tuning in on television and through social media.

LVCVA Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik told board members the live coverage of several aspects of race week produced 240 pieces of unique content with 59 million impressions on multiple social media channels. The LVCVA calculated that the event produced 600 million social impressions of the city on race night and 8 billion social impressions over the full race week through 40 contracted media influencers.

It was the top trending topic on X, formerly known as Twitter, and the number of worldwide impressions reached 48.6 billion, a record. Media impressions for Las Vegas normally reach between 3 billion and 6 billion in a full year. The 48.6 billion was accumulated over just three months.

The numbers above reflect impressions, not publicity value. The Las Vegas Grand Prix generated 48.6 billion worldwide impressions. Usually, our earned media results total in the range of 3 billion to 6 billion impressions every year. The 48.6 billion impressions were accumulated in three weeks.

The LVCVA is still awaiting F1 broadcast viewership numbers. Wik said ESPN reported 1.3 million viewers – the most popular after-8 p.m. show on television on Nov. 18 – but that Sky Sports International and F1’s channel, shown overseas, had not yet reported its statistics.

Tax collections

Hill offered a comparison on live entertainment tax collections. The National Finals Rodeo generally results in collections of slightly under $2 million each year. The live entertainment tax collection for Formula One was 20 times that amount, somewhere between $30 million and $35 million.

“And we haven’t even calculated other taxes,” Hill said.

Among the totals that are expected to reach record levels are hotel room tax revenue and gaming tax revenue, which are expected to be released at the end of this month.

But not everybody was happy.

Board member Cedric Crear, a Las Vegas City Council member, said his office received numerous complaints that he wants to have answers for.

Several resort corridor businesses said road construction and blocked entrances resulted in massive losses for some companies.

LVCVA Board Chairman Jim Gibson, who chairs the Clark County Commission, said he hopes county staff will produce a full report on the pros and cons of F1. The timing of gathering data for the report is unclear, but Gibson said he hopes to offer results to the public sometime in January.

Hill is convinced that despite some of the difficulties experienced, it’s imperative that Las Vegas continue to host the race.

“Year 1 of the race was the hardest because we had to spend more than 4½ months to pave the circuit,” Hill said. “That’’ll last for a number of years and would have to be touched up along the way. It won’t be another 4½-month effort. That will eliminate quite a bit of congestion.”

Super Bowl preparation

While government and LVCVA officials assess what they can do better next year for F1, representatives of the Super Bowl 58 Host Committee gave an update on its preparations for the city’s next big event, which is less than two months away.

Bill McConnell, chief operations officer of the committee, and Jenny Bundschuh, vice president of events and operations for the committee, told board members they are in the home stretch of preparations with dozens of meetings scheduled with first responders and other partners to be prepared to keep the community safe for the third major event in three months, including the National Finals Rodeo.

Several community events, including tree plantings, have occurred in the city and the LVCVA marketing machine is already at work promoting Las Vegas as a city of excessive celebration featuring a tie-in with former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, who was famous for his elaborate end zone celebrations after touchdowns.

In a campaign developed by R&R Partners, a music video featuring Johnson and Grammy-nominated artist Tobe Nwigwe celebrates Las Vegas as a city that condones excessive celebration. The video was shortened to a 30-second television commercial that debuted during the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders football game on Thanksgiving, which at the time was the third most-watched TV game of the season.

Hill said the city’s emphasis on sports and entertainment has solidified its standing as the “Entertainment and Sports Capital of the World” and he noted that the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony extended its contract with Las Vegas for two more years, that the NBA conducted its first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament last week, the the NHL will hold its annual draft at the Sphere in June and the CopaAmerica will have three three soccer matches in late June, including a game featuring soccer power Brazil.

New board member

Earlier in the meeting, Ann Hoff, president and chief operating officer of MGM Resort International’s Bellagio, Park MGM and NoMad properties, on Tuesday was sworn in as a member of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors.

She replaces former MGM colleague Anton Nikodemus, who resigned to take over as CEO of Seaport Entertainment, a division of Howard Hughes Holdings, which is planning to develop a casino property on the Strip at Fashion Show mall.

Hoff, an MGM executive since 1990, was appointed to the board’s compensation, marketing and Las Vegas Convention Center District committees.

Nikodemus had also served as vice chairman of the board of directors. He was replaced in that role by Brian Gullbrants, president of Wynn Las Vegas.

During the meeting, Hill announced that it was the last board meeting in its existing board room. In January, the board will take up residence in a new board room in the South Hall where LVCVA executive offices are being built as part of a $600 million renovation project.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.

An earlier version of this story reported the 48.6 billion impressions as a dollar value.