Formula 1 cars race past the Bellagio grandstand in this F1 rendering. (Image: F1)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s off to a soft start as compared to bookings last year, when we had a lot of advance pre-bookings,\u201d MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel soft in gaming, which is the most important piece — or one of the more important pieces. It just does in room rates at the big three, meaning, in this case Aria, Cosmo, and Bellagio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Average room rates for the first F1 weekend in Las Vegas were $1,666 for the Bellagio, $1,663 for the Cosmopolitan, and $1,457 for Aria. The average nightly cost for a room across Las Vegas was $496.<\/p>\n
Race to the Bottom<\/h2>\n Hornbuckle said that hotel rates for this year’s race weekend, November 22-24, are about half that. Converted into dollars for the largest gaming company on the Strip, Hornbuckle estimated the difference at \u201c30 millionish.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That seems like small potatoes for a company that reported record net revenues of $4.3 billion in the quarter on the same call. That included $2.2 billion from its Strip properties — up 3% from the second period last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
MGM COO Corey Sanders said the drop-off in F1 interest didn’t take the company by surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from other markets,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s fairly consistent. Year one, there\u2019s a lot of hype for it. This will be a good weekend for us compared to an average normal weekend. Just in comparison to F1 last year, it was so substantial, especially on the rates at the luxury properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vroom to Grow<\/h2>\n It may be American football that picks up some of the F1 slack — at least for MGM\u2019s properties on the South Strip, which were only 60% full for the inaugural race. The Las Vegas Raiders take on the Denver Broncos at Allegiant Stadium on November 24, the day after Saturday night\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
Hornbuckle said he hopes that more non-race fans won\u2019t be scared to visit Las Vegas during F1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cLast year, I think we did an amazing job scaring the hell out of people in terms of traffic,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring the actual event, it was fascinating. There was no traffic. The build-up to F1 this year is already mild in comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hotel reservations and ticket packages for the second F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix are experiencing a rapid deceleration from last year. So said MGM Resorts execs during the casino company’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s off to a soft start as compared to bookings last year, when we had a lot of advance pre-bookings,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":326709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83505,81886],"tags":[82409,82022,81954,82543,82381,23,83694,82024,84736,83099,91883,83445],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
F1 Fans Not Racing to Rent Las Vegas Rooms This Year -- MGM - Casino.org<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n