LAS VEGAS (NewsNation) — The Las Vegas Grand Prix is making a comeback in the Sin City, decades after the last Formula One race in the 1980s.
However, not everyone is revved up about this race. From increased hotel costs to snarled travel and a sudden influx of travelers in the city, the race has already caused controversy.
As much excitement as the race has caused, it has also created a lot of headaches.
Louisa Coates, a longtime F1 fan, had to cancel her dream wedding due to skyrocketing hotel prices.
“They literally just priced us out of the market at a time we needed to book and confirm a date for our wedding,” Coates said.
Room rates more than tripled when the race was first announced in 2022, but since then, rates have been cut in half with many rooms left to be sold.
“All of the hotel rooms were priced very high, anticipating those rooms would be filled by F1 customers. But now that those tickets have been sold, those packages have been sold, the city needs to fill the other half of the rooms,” Steve Hill, the convention and visitors authority president, said.
Plus, the months of construction along a 3.8-mile race track through the heart of the city caused delays, frustrations and eyesores.
One Las Vegas resident told NewsNation that the construction was time-consuming and confusing, explaining it was difficult to know which stop lights were green and which weren’t.
A one-mile drive down the strip is taking drivers up to 40 minutes, and the city’s 100,000 resort workers are concerned about how they’re going to get to work with all the street closures.
“It is a nightmare driving to work,” baker Carlos Padilla said.
“I am not able to take my stepdaughter to middle school in the morning because I will not make it to work on time,” hotel room attendant Maria Cervantes said.
Businesses affected say they’ve seen a significant dropoff in customers and sales.
“Normally a full parking lot is now half empty, and I feel like a lot of people are choosing to not drive to this part of town because of the F1 traffic area,” James Kwon, manager at Yama Sushi, said.
The normal bus route located on the resort corridor has temporarily been removed to accommodate F1 construction.
“We are getting less reservations for sure, less big parties, and noticing a significant drop in sales as well,” Kwon added.
Just a couple doors down at the specialty Vietnamese dessert shop, Bamboo, owner Santy Luangpraseuth said she has seen a noticeable drop in customers this fall.
“We did a comparison between last year’s numbers and this year’s numbers. This year we have been a lot slower than normal,” Luangpraseuth said.
Both businesses said they’ve seen about a 10-15% drop in sales, but are optimistic customers will come back by December.
NewsNation affiliate KLAS contributed to this report.
