Formula 1 race: Miami nightclub partner anticipates the week ‘topping’ Super Bowl 2020

E11EVEN Operating Partner Gino LoPinto sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the economic impact Miami's Formula 1 race is expected to have on hotels, clubs, and restaurants, and the price packages included in performances and events.

Video Transcript

- It's an expensive weekend in Miami indeed. And the city's famous nightclub, E11EVEN, is revving up for the big weekend. The club kicked off celebrations last night. Rick Ross was the first performer. Diplo is going to be tonight. Snoop Dogg, Travis Scott, Tiesto all scheduled to perform over the coming days. But if you want to get a table at E11EVEN, you'd better be able to pay these big bucks. We're talking tens of thousands of dollars, over $100,000, I read, for some of these tables.

Let's talk about what's going on there. Live from Miami, we want to bring in Gino LoPinto. He's the operating partner of E11EVEN. Gino, it's great to have you. It's expensive weekend in Miami. Give us a sense just of what it's like on the ground, and how does this compare to the Super Bowl that Miami hosted just two years ago?

GINO LOPINTO: It's funny that you say that because that was our greatest week in nightclub history. My partner, Dennis DeGori, who created the concept. And co-founders Michael Simkins and Marc Roberts, we set out to build a lifestyle brand. And 8 years ago till now, Super Bowl in Miami was our greatest week in history, and we anticipate F1 week topping that.

- I mean, what you guys are doing is incredible, a 24-hour nightclub. You have this incredible line up of performers. But you're also the first nightclub to accept crypto as payment. Talk about why the brand entered the crypto space and how you hope to build on that with this Grand Prix event.

GINO LOPINTO: My partners and I are deep into the space personally, and we thought it was time. Mayor Francis Suarez was champion the tech movement here. And some people are calling Miami the "crypto capital of the world" right now. We have the International Bitcoin Conference here. And we decided to accept crypto just over a year ago. And it's been insane, the response.

We've processed over $5 million in crypto, and it's even led to us launching our own NFT collection, The E11EVEN Captain's club, which we're minting at the end of the month. So it's exciting to even see this week with crypto.com being involved and FTX, their own events, that people are actually prepaying for our tables in crypto quite a bit.

- How much are they paying? We were reading over $100,000 for some tables. Is that accurate?

GINO LOPINTO: It is. I mean, from last night through Sunday, they started at 5,000. We do sell the owners' table, which is a whole branding package presented by E11EVEN Vodka, and that is $100,000. That's already pretty much sold out for four nights. One night available there. And then there's even some bigger sections from some of the corporate companies, watch companies and car companies, that wanted to have E11EVEN available just to send their biggest clients. So they took some big sections and spent even greater than 100,000.

- So then how fierce is the competition between the celebrity performers trying to get these big clients as well, especially when you have an entire city rallying around one big event?

GINO LOPINTO: Yeah. It's tough to navigate, believe it or not, because there's so many celebrities in town. We're getting calls from the PR agents that they want to stop by, and we have to navigate how many people we can let in along with the crazy crowd that's already here. I mean, Miami is expecting over 300,000 people. And the stadium, Hard Rock Stadium, where they built the Miami International Autodrome for the race, really only holds 65,000. I think they built it up to 80,000. So that tells you about 75% of the people coming into Miami are here to party.

- Certainly. I'm jealous of everyone that's down in Miami, including you right now, Gino. Give us a sense-- because there was actually a piece in The Wall Street Journal this morning. And they were saying the spending that's happening right now on concerts, on people going out to eat, on people traveling, it's back to what it was in 2019, those pre-pandemic levels. Outside of a weekend like this, what are you seeing? Are more people going to your club than ever before?

GINO LOPINTO: It's shocking, but coming out of COVID, it's actually increased quite a bit. We were on a steady increase since opening in 2014, and 2019 was our best year prior to COVID. And coming out of it, it's been 40% better than 2019. So Miami is just on fire. I believe it's happening in many cities, but Miami, I think, is just on another level. Sexy city with a lot of happenings. And Zoom calls have just changed the game, so a lot of Northeastern influx of people moving here, Wall Street people, crypto, as you said. It's been incredible.

- Well, then when you have so many people coming, because you're talking about the international clients that are also coming, as well as the domestic clients who are coming for these sorts of events. What does that really tell you about where you can go from here. I mean, who'd have thought Formula One would be the thing that would draw everybody in? What are you thinking in terms of future collaborations or future events that you'd like to participate in.

GINO LOPINTO: It's unbelievable. We already have the famous Art Basel. Our Miami music week, were always the two biggest weeks. And of course, the typical New Year's and holidays. Then they added the International Bitcoin Conference last year, which grew tremendously this year. Now F1 signs a 10-year deal. And, ironically, I feel like this F1 race may be the biggest one in history for first-time race goers. I've personally never even been to F1 myself.

I've been watching that "Drive To Survive" show just so I could get a little bit of my own knowledge on it and understand the racers, and so it's exciting. And I know Miami, the political landscape here, the quality of the weather, the beach. Everybody rallies around trying to bring more events like this. So I see more and more things coming to the city.

- Do you know, are you going to the race this weekend?

GINO LOPINTO: I am going to the race. I was a guest of Red Bull executives. So I'm excited because they own two cars. So I'm pretty sure the area and the seats will be pretty good and a lot of fun.

- Certainly sounds like that. Gino LoPinto, great to see you. Thanks so much and have a great weekend.