F1 News: Las Vegas GP Preparations Spark Apology From Liberty Media CEO
The Las Vegas Grand Prix preparations have caused Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei to apologize to the residents for their "forbearance" as the work to prepare the street circuit and the pit building in the past year caused severe disruption in their day-to-day lives.
Construction has been ongoing in Nevada for several months to revamp the Strip, build the paddock, and establish pit facilities, resulting in disruptions and detours impacting both residents and tourists.
Listen To The Latest Driven Mad Podcast Episode
Trees were cleared, and the renowned Bellagio fountains were obstructed from the grandstand view, leading to complaints about exorbitant ticket and hospitality package prices, some reaching millions of dollars.
Though Maffei stated that the inflated prices were not necessarily due to Formula 1, he went on to apologize to the residents of Las Vegas. Speaking to Fox5, he said:
"I want to apologise to all the Las Vegas residents and we appreciate that they have their forbearance and their willingness to tolerate us.
"We’re going to bring something like $1.7 billion of revenue to the area, so it’s not just for the benefit of fans who want to view the race.
"We hope this is a great economic benefit in Las Vegas. We hope this is the most difficult year with all the construction that went on and things will be easier in the future.
"There will be a 105,000 people, so the sheer scale of it, even for Las Vegas will be the largest event Las Vegas will have.
"There’s a launch party from Wednesday to Sunday, almost a week of events and musical acts.
"You know, you’re seeing sports figures from other sports having their own kind of side viewing parties.
"A lot of [the high prices] frankly comes from costs that are not entirely ours.
"I’m not begrudging our partners, but, you know, five-night minimums in hotels and things like that helped push up the costs. Not all of it’s just the pricing of the tickets.
"The experience of that and, frankly, the fact that there’s so much demand is what drives it."
