Las Vegas Grand Prix organisers are planning ‘affordable’ zone of tickets

The CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix has stated that they are planning on offering “affordable” tickets for the inaugural event next year.

The race on the Las Vegas Strip was officially announced in March of this year and will feature for the first time in the 2023 calendar but with tickets still yet to be put on sale, there are question marks as to how much fans will be expected to shell out to attend.

Given its location, there is every expectation that the tickets will be very expensive but the CEO of the race, Renee Wilm, has suggested a special area will be made that features more “affordable” prices.

Speaking at the AXS Sports Facilities and Franchises and Ticketing Symposium in Nashville, Tennesse, Wilm, who is also Chief Legal Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at Liberty Media, Formula 1’s owners, said the affordable areas would be aimed at a younger audience and have a watch-party feel.

The Sports Business Journal also reports Wilm as saying the tickets are likely to go on sale early next year.

The news comes in the same week that the organisers of the British Grand Prix received criticism for their ‘dynamic pricing’; which means ticket prices rise in line with demand. Some fans took to social media to complain that the rise was so quick that their own tickets had increased in price whilst they were in the virtual queue.

Fans were also forced to wait several hours for their spot at Silverstone before the website crashed and remained closed until the following day.

Some more news to emerge from the conference in Nashville was the reasoning behind the choice of time for the grand prix which is set to run on the Saturday rather than the traditional Sunday.

The race will start at 10pm track time which equates to 1am Eastern Time on the other side of the United States. This start time means it will be a morning race for European viewers with a 10am start in Central Europe and a 9am lights out in the UK.

Wilm explained that the time had been agreed in order to appeal to the established audience in Europe.

“That was actually a compromise to make sure we are broadcasting at a time when our European fans can get up with a cup of coffee and watch the race at 6:00 to 7:00 in the morning, very similar to how we watch the European races [in the United States], so that was actually a very important component of planning out our sequencing for the race weekend.”

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is set to take place on November 18, 2023.

Read more: Formula 1 want Las Vegas race facility to be a year-round attraction