What kept Vegas afloat during the pandemic? Probably not what you think
Sports, the attraction tourism leaders had hoped would lead the next wave of greater visitation to Las Vegas, is being touted as a major factor in keeping the city afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.
And it isn’t the big professional sports franchises like the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Raiders leading the charge.
It’s been lower-profile professional sports, amateur events and once-a-year competitions that have kept some resorts humming.
Think figure skating and college basketball, youth baseball, softball and soccer. The highest profile pro events have involved UFC, NASCAR and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open golf tournament.
And, in nearly all cases, it’s been done with minimal numbers of spectators — only the participants committed to living in “bubbles” have been here.
The Las Vegas Hospitality Association called attention to the survival story with “Sports Uninterrupted” in an hourlong panel discussion last week. While every panelist had a particular story on weathering the coronavirus pandemic, every one of them shared the long-term goal — to get back to the way things were with capacity crowds of fans, as long as that can be accomplished safely.
The sports successes in Las Vegas have inspired similar activities and attractions around the world to tap the local expertise.
“We don’t want to be a super-spreader destination,” said Tyler Baldwin, director of booking and entertainment for Boyd Gaming Corp.’s Orleans Arena, noting that the company took its plans for events to the Southern Nevada Health District for approval and to the Nevada Gaming Control Board for additional feedback because the Orleans is a gaming property.
Figure skating competition
The Orleans Arena played host to the U.S. Figure Skating Skate America competition in October. More than 50 participants — but no spectators — attended one of figure skating’s most prestigious Grand Prix events.
Participants stayed in hotel rooms and had meals brought to them and went to socially distanced locker rooms when their events were scheduled.
“I’m really hoping the term ‘bubble’ goes away eventually,” Baldwin said.
UFC had a slightly modified strategy, according to panelist Mike Newquist, senior vice president of events for UFC.
Las Vegas-based UFC was believed to be the first professional sport to return to competition with events staged at Apex, a UFC facility in southwestern Las Vegas, and Fight Island, a venue in Abu Dhabi.
“The challenge we had at the very beginning was how do we bring in 800 people from every corner of the globe to one unique location? We ended up with 11 different charter flights with planes from Las Vegas, London, Sao Paulo, Russia to accommodate and then we also had some other flights coming in as well,” Newquist said. “We had to buy out an entire hotel to serve as our bubble and thousands of tests that we all had to take where we were testing before we left, testing as soon as we landed, testing throughout the week and then testing before the event.”
No positive tests
Newquist said there was not a single positive COVID-19 test at the first Fight Island event among thousands administered.
“The athletes, camps and our staffs really took it seriously, not just there but before they were coming to Abu Dhabi,” he said. “The logistics were something I had never seen.”
Kevin Camper, chief sales officer for Speedway Motorsports Inc., operator of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said fan attendance at races at the track is gradually increasing.
The track had 12,500 in attendance for March’s Pennzoil 400 race and 50 percent of capacity is expected to be allowed at The Strip at The Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the track’s drag-racing venue. Camper is optimistic that full capacity will be allowed at September’s South Point 400 NASCAR race.
Fans seem willing to pay for additional things at upcoming events, he said.
“There’s a lot of pent-up demand for sure,” Camper said. “I’ve coined the phrase ‘revenge spend.’ It seems there are a lot of people wanting to do that based on what we saw at a recent NASCAR event in Atlanta.”
Gifts for golfers
Patrick Lindsey, tournament director of the Shriners Hospital for Children Open, a PGA golf tournament in October, said event leaders have learned a lot about staging events during the pandemic and have enlisted the Vegas Golden Knights and UFC to help them make their events more popular by delivering gifts to the world’s top golfers.
Lindsey made personal contacts with golfers and their representatives at other tournaments and delivered a gift bag with a Vegas Golden Knights sweater with the golfer’s name on the back as well as UFC fighting gloves and a walkout hoodie.
“We determined that we had to go after the ticket movers,” Lindsey said. “And we learned something new at every tournament we attended.”
Lindsey said Spanish golfer Jon Rahm said the goodie bag from the Shriners tournament was one of the nicest gifts he had ever received on the tour — even though he was unable to participate in the event.
Lindsey believes continued good relationships with top golfers with the help of community partners will eventually make the field stronger in the future.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
Sports Uninterrupted
Other highlights from the Sports Uninterrupted panel, which was moderated by Lisa Motley, director of sports marketing and special events for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority:
-UFC is continuing to plan live events in May and June.
-The Walt Disney Co., which owns ESPN — a UFC partner — has called UFC executives for advice on reopenings.
-About half the hotel and room sales at the Orleans can be attributed to youth and amateur sports events.
-Thanks to the Henderson Silver Knights needing a temporary arena for games this year, team opponents are staying at the Orleans on road trips this year.
-The Orleans has established a "one-stop shop" for organizations negotiating events and stays at the property with all venue, hotel and catering needs handled by one individual.
-The Orleans Arena staged 70 basketball games last year, including tournaments for the Western Athletic Conference and the West Coast Athletic Conference.
-The Orleans is focused on outside-the-box sporting events, such as curling. The first time the property had an opportunity to host curling, it passed, thinking it would be difficult to sell tickets. In 2016, the property had a record-breaking year, thanks in part to curling competitions — and 65,000 tickets sold mostly to Canadians wintering in Las Vegas.
-The Orleans may vie to be an Olympic training site for the 2028 Games, which will be staged in Los Angeles.
-The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is one of the most diverse sports and event facilities in the world, hosting NASCAR races and driving experiences like Dream Racing and Exotics Racing, as well as the Electric Daisy Carnival, which annually attracts around 180,000 people a night over three nights.
-Most of the major event venues work collaboratively instead of competitively to bring major sporting events to the city. Tyler Baldwin of the Orleans said South Point focuses on equestrian events, Allegiant Stadium on megaevents and T-Mobile Arena, the Orleans Arena and the Thomas & Mack Center on midsized sporting events.
