“We want to make sure it’s completely done, fully vetted, operational, ready to go in advance of the race weekend,” said Renee Wilm, Chief Executive Officer of Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc. “We are leaving nothing to chance.”In spring, resurfacing will begin for the nearly 4-mile Formula 1 track, but Formula 1 Chief Executive Officer Stefano Domenicali expects a lot of the work to be ready at the last minute.“That’s part of the game,” Domenicali said. “But there is an incredible professionality here that we found in the committee working with us, that’s really what we needed.”The economic impact of Formula 1 is estimated to be nearly $1.3 billion. That doubles the estimated economic impact of Super Bowl LVIII. The National Football League’s championship game is set to kick off in Allegiant Stadium in 2024.Both landmark events have some calling Las Vegas “the sports capital of the world.”
At Monday’s Preview Las Vegas event much of the promotion centered around sports events in the Las Vegas valley. Steve Hill, president and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said the events now find themselves the center of attention in Las Vegas, sharing the space with conventions and meetings.“It’s changed the brand of Las Vegas,” Hill said.According to Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Applied Analysis, before the COVID-19 pandemic, sports came in 7th as a motivating factor for people to visit Las Vegas.