F1 will 'inject $1.2B' into Las Vegas: Liberty Media CEO
Racers, start your engines, the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be in high gear this weekend for the US Formula One event Liberty CEO and President Greg Maffei is already characterizing as "bigger than the Super Bowl." Liberty Media (LSXMA) owns the Formula One Group.
Maffei sits down with Yahoo Finance to discuss the economic benefits the local community will see to hosting the event and how Liberty Media is working to foster Formula One racing's global fanbase.
"There is an aspirational element to Formula 1, no doubt — It's a sport of technology... glamour... excitement. But we try to make sure it's accessible to all," Maffei states. "Historically, Western Europe was our base and we did skew older, but we now have a fan base which is much more broad, much more widespread."
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Video Transcript
- Um, Greg, what about the local residents there? You recently apologized to the local folks in Vegas because this construction effort has been very disruptive. There have been road closures. There have been restaurants that have complained about lost revenue.
I mean, people in Vegas are used to spectacle, so I don't know how impressed they'll be by all of the fireworks and the race itself. How do you win them back? Do you need to win them back?
GREG MAFFEI: Well, I think a couple of things. It shows you never apologize. I was attempting to be pleasant and thankful for all the forbearance that they had to go as we've constructed things. We are not the only construction going on in Vegas, but we were a major element.
I think Vegas is going to like this a lot. It will be the largest sporting event ever done in Vegas. Bigger than the Super Bowl. Bigger than anything they've ever had. And we're seeing-- injecting something like $1.2 billion into the local economy.
You're seeing the benefits go out to cab drivers. You're seeing go to restaurants who are having upcharges. So I think there's going to be a lot of revenue shared by many in the community and we hope that will do something for the benefit of all.
- So, Greg, with the sort of crown jewel of the US, now with Vegas happening this weekend. What's next for the US market? We saw a tremendous growth during the pandemic and in the Netflix show and the new race in Miami last year. What's next here for in terms of growing that market? Is it sort of hitting a saturation point?
GREG MAFFEI: No, I don't think it's hitting that at all. We've seen enormous growth in our fan base over the last few years. You can look at engagement across all sorts of platforms. TikTok. All other social media platforms. The United States has now become our largest market.
You can look at how the fan base has expanded. In the space of four years, a recent study showed we've taken the average age down four years, and the new fan base is about 40% female. So we've got a variety of fans who interact with us in enormous number of ways. And we continue to grow that audience and touch them in new and different ways every day.
- Greg, I'm curious about the characteristics of that audience besides some of the demographics you just talked about, because F1 traditionally is a sort of wealthy person sport at least in European terms, right? So how do you balance that sort of wealthy audience that you've had traditionally with the mass appeal that you appear to be shooting for in the United States?
GREG MAFFEI: Well, I think there is an aspirational element to Formula One, no doubt. It's sport of technology. It's a sport of glamour. It's a sport of excitement. But we tried to make sure it's accessible to all. You're right, historically Western Europe was our base and we did skew older. But we now have a fan base which is much more broad, much more widespread.
I've been told by many parents that they're amazed that their teenage child gets up early on a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning to watch qualifying or watch the race. Maybe the only thing they're willing to get up for. And I'm ecstatic that we have that growth in the young fan base. And I'm ecstatic that we have the growth in our female fan base. It's wonderful.
