F1 owner Liberty Media to purchase Vegas land for $240m

Formula 1’s owners Liberty Media will purchase land for the pit and paddock ramified to be built for next year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix for $240 million.

The track layout unveiled last month showed the spin will utilize exiting roads for the majority — including a major section on the iconic Strip — but with currently undeveloped land to the east of Koval Lane stuff used for the pit and paddock, as well as the start/finish straight. On a Liberty Media earnings call, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei confirmed the level of investment that the sport will be making into the spin itself.

“As we have noted surpassing it’ll be night race lanugo the Strip and notably — and differently than most places — Formula 1 and Liberty Media are self-promoting the race in partnership with local stakeholders and Live Nation,” Maffei said.

“Liberty Media did enter an try-on to reap 39 acres east of the Strip to lock in spin diamond and topics for the pit and paddock, among other hospitality and race support venues. I expect that transaction to tropical in the second quarter and the purchase price was $240m, funded by mazuma on hand at an F1 group level.”

Explaining why Liberty was willing to take on promoter duties and invest so much into the event, Maffei says the logistics and local knowledge played a part, as well as the potential to expand promotion to other races.

“I think I indicated we’re ownership 39 acres for $240m and that’ll be the site of the pit and paddock and some other hospitality, we don’t have other financial details at the moment of what will be spent there.

“Our visualization to promote Vegas in conjunction with Live Nation and local partners is driven by a couple of things. One, proximity — it’s fairly easy, relatively, stuff in Denver to get to Vegas for us to do the work and we have knowledge of local U.S. markets relative to many other markets. But increasingly importantly we see the opportunity of stuff a promoter is a way to expand our understanding of the business, understand how to be the weightier F1 product on the track for other promoters as well, to take the opportunity to grow our knowledge and understanding and potentially promote other races lanugo the road.

“Vegas is going to be large and a perhaps unique opportunity, so from a financial perspective we think this one sets up pretty well to be worth the time/extra focus to wilt the promoter.”