“If you build it, they will come.”
So whispered the voices of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other baseball players in the baseball diamond in the sky (in Field of Dreams), and come they did. But that was the movies.
This is Vegas. Build it they did. And boy, did we come.
And for decades, Vegas has created one more outrageous chart-topping spectacle after another: stars, tigers, stars with tigers, volcanos, pyramids, dancing fountains, the Eiffel Tower, jumping off 1,000-foot-tall buildings, shooting machine guns, men and women in all states of undress, $10,000 drinks, magicians, Allegiant, and now … Formula 1.
My only question is, have they gone too far this time? Did they maybe bite off more than we could chew, let alone swallow?
Well, they sure fouled up the traffic and for an auto-race event, that seems … kind of auspicious, just not in a good way.
Okay, forget for a moment the incredible disruption to anything near the Strip for the past months and look, I was excited too! I mean, did you see the movie Grand Turismo? On IMAX? I did. Amazing. Incredible race action, the camera work is Oscar worthy. Incredible true story, too, about a young gamer, the best in the world, who becomes an F1 driver and places third at LeMans in his first year.
And maybe $30 with the popcorn.
But today from Vegas, I got an offer for a free room at the Mirage during F1. Wow!
Wait. What? I need to buy two $4,000 (plus “fees”) tickets to the Mirage F1 VIP experience to get my “free” room? Um … I’ll pass. In the slow lane.
Sometimes even Vegas overestimates the disposable income of a large group of people. There is a word for this: “greed.”
Yes, I want to see F1, but you won’t find me ponying up $10K for a weekend. And I don’t know about you, but to me, it seems like the rush to be a part of this history isn’t exactly roaring down Las Vegas Boulevard. In fact, we’re stuck in traffic for an hour on the Strip while they try to construct the track and grandstands so they can drive hundreds of miles an hour. A double order of irony, anyone?
Really, F1, I wish you well. I hope I’m wrong and once again you’ve found another spectacle to draw in the folks. Well, maybe not “ folks,” but like the type of people for whom spending $10,000 on a weekend is no big deal. But excuse me if I add that the Sphere, the one that’s not rolling or going anywhere, has got you beat. By a mile. By a mile.
Sphere: Five Stars.
F1: TBD.
So do I eat my words? Or at least suck up some high powered exhaust? If you had the dollars, ( other than the practice run gone bad ), and F1 or fast cars were your thing the reviews were it was a blast. The books were sure happy . And I was amazed when I got an email the next day after the race to book my 2024. I have a bud who loves all kinds of sporting events so we very well may make it in 2024.
And though I was waving the flag for the Sphere I have to say I learned one lesson here about Vegas. When it comes to over the top spectacles in Vegas, no matter how much grumbling and hassles that lead up to it don’t bet against the house.