Sports
Inside F1 Las Vegas’ plans for a successful sequel — and no drain cover drama
LAS VEGAS — The start of Formula One’s Las Vegas residency last November was a major moment in the 73-year history of the sport.
F1 spent over half a billion dollars to put on one of the most-hyped races in its history, taking over the reins of promoting and organizing the entire grand prix.
Despite a bumpy start — a loose water valve cover canceled first practice and severely delayed FP2 on a lousy opening night — the event was a huge success. On the track, the fight for the win went down to the closing laps as Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc scrapped back and forth for position. The fast-flowing layout, incorporating a long straight down the Strip, proved a hit with the drivers and made for the most entertaining race of the year.
The grand prix was a money-spinner, even with locals’ frustrations resulting from the disruption of having F1 in town. November is typically the city’s eighth-best month of the year. In 2023, it was the second-best month in its history.
“We knew it would be big, but the attention … frankly, F1 did a fantastic job of building up that race,” said Steve Hill, the CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “It was two or three times more marketing value than we would have expected going in. We would have been happy with a third of what we got.
“We were going to be thrilled with what we expected, but what we got was eye-opening.”
As F1 returns for its second shot in Las Vegas, there is a new dynamic. The novelty factor has diminished, but in its place comes experience and, for the organizers, a playbook to work from. There is a bar to try and meet once again.
The spotlight on the race action in Las Vegas has only increased thanks to the closer competitive picture through 2024. By this point last year, Verstappen had already long been crowned champion; now, there is a chance he could clinch his fourth title Saturday night, so long as he finishes ahead of Lando Norris.
The potential of F1 crowning a champion at its glitziest event is appealing for the sport and something the race organizers know would offer a unique chance to put a Las Vegas twist on the celebrations.
“I’m sure that we would be able to pull some ideas out of our hat, maybe pre-arrange some pretty exciting opportunities,” Renee Wilm, CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, said of a potential coronation, noting the high-end hospitality options at the properties along the Strip. “There’s so many opportunities to highlight the drivers, and particularly if we actually do have the benefit of being able to get a champion.”
While the organizers of the race may not be able to influence the sporting spectacle, the success of last year’s Saturday night race was enough reassurance that no changes were needed for 2024. The circuit remains unchanged, but they anticipate heightened fan interest with a late-season championship fight underway.
“In the U.S., we love to see good competition, and it’s less about who the particular team or driver is,” Wilm said. “So to know that there is still so much on the line and that the championship is going to be up for grabs, and the fact you’ve had so many different drivers on the podium is itself creating a lot of excitement and buzz.”
A different approach has been taken to appeal to fans for the second running of the race. In the lead-up to the 2023 grand prix, there was scrutiny of high ticket prices and how unaffordable it would be for people to attend. This year, over 10,000 extra general admission tickets have been made available across three fan zones as part of rejigging the ticket inventory. The hope is to make it a race that can cater to everybody, not just those chasing high-end experiences.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix also changed how it marketed the race, starting the build-up around 100 days out instead of over a year in advance. Wilm said in October that ticket sales had been “pretty consistent with what we did expect” and that she anticipated a surge closer to the race due to Las Vegas’ reputation as a last-minute town. She also believed many fans would wait until after the U.S. presidential election, which may have left some “a little hesitant to know what their November is going to look like.”
According to a statement issued by the race last week, 300,000 attendees are expected “based on calculated data from ticket sales and bookings for race-related programming.”
A more concerted effort has also been made to connect with the local community ahead of the second year. A free fan festival will take place Friday and Saturday, giving attendees a chance to get a flavor of what F1 brings to Las Vegas, with tickets quickly being fully reserved. Hill thought it would help “build both goodwill in the community and an additional fan base in the southwest” of the United States.
Race organizers have taken efforts to inform the public about traffic around the race. (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Developing goodwill with the community was particularly important after the frustration many locals in Las Vegas felt about the level of disruption last year. The requirements of repaving the sections of the road for the circuit — taking 10 inches off the surface and replacing it with one suitable for F1 cars — led to significant road closures and traffic issues. With so much of the construction work already completed last year, there wasn’t a need to repeat it this year.
“This year, the community knows more about what to expect, and what we’re doing is not building the circuit,” Hill said. “We really didn’t start any kind of lane disruption until the first week of October, where last year, that started in the middle of April. It just wears you out after a while.”
Wilm said they were “just light years ahead of where we were October of last year, in terms of local sentiment. This is the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It’s also Liberty and Formula One’s grand prix. So it is so important to us that everyone embraces this event as much as we do.”
Communication with locals is one area the organizers of the race felt there was room for improvement. “We communicated, but we didn’t communicate with the level of sophistication that this race demands,” Terry Miller, the general manager who oversees the track construction, told The Athletic. In 2024, the race improved a bespoke, interactive website to provide all the information about road closures and any possible disruption. It introduced a texting program, giving locals a “week ahead” view, and met with over 900 stakeholders to ensure no surprises.
Another surprise from 2023 that F1 will be keen to avoid is the disruption caused by the loose water valve cover Thursday night that destroyed Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, caused FP1 to be canceled after eight minutes and delayed FP2 so long that police asked fans to leave the track by that point. While it was hardly the first time a utility cover had come up at an F1 street track, it was by far the most infamous incident.
Miller explained that new protocols are in place for this year. “Due to what occurred last year, we do have, in fact, a protocol and a process that we’ve gone through over the last five months to secure the lids, even to the point where we will do three or four visual checks of what’s going on in the roadway before and after a race event,” he said, confirming there were extra checks after what happened last year.
“You can never guarantee that nothing is going to happen,” he said. “But you can certainly have the mitigating efforts in place to reduce the risk, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Even with the frustration felt by some in Las Vegas, the commercial success of the race was significant. A report by Clark County estimated the total economic impact of the grand prix to be $1.5 billion, $884 million of which came through visitor spending. It raised $77 million in tax revenue and turned what is normally the second-worst weekend of the year into “one of the best weekends we’ve ever had,” according to Hill, surpassing all expectations.
Matching that in 2024 is going to be a big ask, nor is there an expectation it can be repeated in quite such spectacular fashion. “We’re not probably going to be able to compete with year one numbers again, and (we) don’t need to in order for it to be successful,” Hill said. “If the numbers were half that, it would still be a game changer.”
It means a successful second running of the Las Vegas Grand Prix is more about sustainability — putting on another spectacular show with fewer issues or frustrations. Not everything will be to everyone’s liking. The start time of 10 p.m. PT Saturday remains unchanged, and it will inevitably bother drivers and their team personnel; a fresh dose of time zone confusion to kick off a tripleheader that continues with two weeks in the Middle East to see out the season.
While there is a desire to reduce the demands placed on drivers for the “spectacle” around the grand prix, the show versus sport debate will also likely reignite when they get to the paddock Wednesday.
But now it’s about reaching what Hill thought was “an equilibrium point” between excitement over something new and the uncertainty or concern it could cause locally, proving this can be an event for the long term.
“That kind of sustainability matters a lot,” Hill said. “It’s a tough race to put on, it’s down one of the busiest streets in the world and putting that on is not an easy thing to do. But it’s going to be a fantastic week.”
(Top photo: Bob Kupbens / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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ATLANTA — The FBI and Atlanta Police Department are getting ready for a massive security operation ahead of the World Cup semifinals between England and Argentina at Atlanta Stadium.
Both agencies have used drones to search for potential threats on the ground and in the sky. The FBI is enforcing the Federal Aviation Administration’s Temporary Flight Restrictions around the venue.
The FBI has confiscated more than 600 drones nationwide since the World Cup began. Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office Marlo Graham said 86 of those drones were seized in Atlanta.
Graham said the FBI uses a “mechanism” that allows agents to see unauthorized drones in restricted airspace. Agents then work to mitigate the threat posed by unknown drones.
“We’ve been able to safely land drones that have been unauthorized in the flight restricted area,” Graham said.
The FBI has confiscated more than 600 drones at World Cup events since the tournament started. (FBI Atlanta)
While the FBI treats every drone as a potential threat, Graham said the threat level can increase depending on the size of the drone and how close it gets to the stadium.
“Obviously, the closer to the venue, the larger the crowd. We are fortunate here in Atlanta that we have a closed dome stadium,” Graham said. “We don’t want the game to be impacted because a hobbyist couldn’t control their drone, and it lands right when one of our star players was getting ready to score a goal.”
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The Atlanta Police Department’s Drone Unit has helped the FBI track down people suspected of flying in restricted zones.
Sgt. Kindu Franklin said most of the people caught flying drones around World Cup venues are hobbyists with no intent to harm the crowd of soccer fans below.
“In some cases, they just recently bought a drone just for FIFA to get some of the cool footage that they want to put up on their social media,” Franklin said. “There are different ways that you can weaponize these drones. So, we’re operating in a proactive manner.”
The Atlanta Police Department’s drone mission at the World Cup focuses on surveillance. (FOX)
The Atlanta Police Department’s drone mission is focused on surveillance. Officers are looking for potential threats, traffic issues and people the FBI suspects are flying drones illegally.
“So, what we want to do is give our command staff a view that they can’t get from the ground,” Sgt. James Cunningham with APD’s Drone Unit said.
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Cunningham’s unit can launch drones remotely from handheld controllers. Other drones are launched from docking stations strategically placed across the city, and officers control them from the back of an SUV using a computer and a PlayStation controller.
The Atlanta Police Department launches some drones from docks strategically placed across the city. They are controlled by a computer and a PlayStation controller. (Fox News)
The drone docks are used year-round to help the police get an aerial view of emergency situations before officers arrive. The computer shows the drone pilot where all the police body cameras and vehicles are in the area, allowing them to communicate better with officers on the ground.
For the World Cup, the drone docks let the department have more eyes in the sky and respond to emergencies faster.
“It’s going to cut down time. We’re going to get there quick. And then you’re going to get an aerial perspective of what you can’t see on the ground,” Cunningham said.
The Atlanta Police Department launches some drones from docks to get more eyes in the sky and respond to emergencies faster. (Fox News)
Cunningham said the drone unit has completed more than 1,400 flights and logged more than 550 flight hours since the beginning of June.
“Some people haven’t even done that in years or haven’t even reached those numbers in the life of their drone unit,” Cunningham said.
“We train for the environment. We live here, so we know what to expect,” Anais Paredes, an APD drone pilot, said.
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The FBI is asking that hobbyist drone pilots know the Temporary Flight Restrictions in their area before taking off.
There is a one-mile restriction around World Cup stadiums on non-match days, and a three-mile restriction on game day.
LAS VEGAS — From the time Austin Reaves joined the Lakers in 2021 as an undrafted prospect, his basketball life centered around playing with a savant in LeBron James.
That no longer will be the case.
Reaves re-signed with the Lakers on a four-year, $180-million deal, but James decided to move on as he prepares to play an unprecedented 24th season.
Reaves was stunned when he heard about James’ decision while playing golf in Lake Tahoe. Nearly two weeks later, Reaves says he still is trying to process the development.
“I kind of was thinking about it last night when I got here,” Reaves said Monday in his first news conference since re-signing. “Starting the season without him being on the team is going to be different for me. He’s kind of all I’ve ever known. Just him being around, joking around, acting like he’s 15. But that’s his decision and like I said in Tahoe, anytime I’ve talked about it, I got nothing but love and respect for him and yeah, let’s play some golf soon.”
The contract Reaves signed was the richest in NBA history for an undrafted player. At 28 and entering his sixth season, Reaves wanted to stay in L.A.
“I wanted to be a Laker the whole time. We had that period from when the season ended until the first [of July] to get something done and we figured it out before then,” he said. “My heart was in L.A. the whole time.”
Reaves will become one of the de facto leaders of the Lakers along with Luka Doncic. The two once again will be one of the most dynamic backcourts in the NBA.
“Obviously my relationship with the guys that were on the team last year,” Reaves said of why he wanted to stay. “And then Luka. I mean, he’s one of my best friends on this planet. Talk to him almost every single day. He sends me videos of his golf swing and asks me what he can do to get better and I tell him I’m not a coach.”
The Lakers have overhauled the roster: All the players who started alongside Reaves in the playoffs last spring are gone. With the signing of former Brooklyn Nets forward Ziaire Williams on Monday, the Lakers have eight new players, all of them arriving either via trades, free agency or the draft.
“They’re good,” Reaves said of the moves. “Obviously, I’ve been with the guys that are leaving for a couple years and with Bron for five years and I hate to see guys like that go. But the pieces that are coming in, I’m very excited about and I’m happy to get started today and see where it goes.”
Walker Kessler dunks during a game between the Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers on March 23.
(Rob Gray / Associated Press)
One of those new players is Walker Kessler, a 7-foot-2 center the Lakers felt fit best around Doncic and Reaves because he’s a lob threat, rim-protector and good defender and is developing his three-point shooting.
The Lakers got him from the Utah Jazz in a trade and then signed him to a four-year, $130-million contract. The Lakers sent out two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033) and two first-round pick swaps (2028, 2030).
Kessler, who played only five games last season after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, is aware the Lakers paid a big price to get him.
“It definitely makes you feel a certain way when you know an organization believes in you,” Kessler said Monday in his introduction. “And I think what they’ve invested, they’re showing that belief in a monetary value, not just with money, but like you said, assets. And for me, I’m somebody that if I know that they have that belief in me, I’m gonna run through a brick wall for them. That’s just how I’ve been wired my whole life and it definitely makes it a lot easier to go out there and compete for a team.”
Power forward Sandro Mamukelashvili could become a fan favorite, in part because of the tattoo he has on his lower left leg — a No. 24 in honor of Kobe Bryant.
Mamukelashvili, who signed a four-year, $52-million deal, averaged 11.2 points last season with the Toronto Raptors and shot 52.3% from the field, including 38.9% from three-point range.
“I got a Mamba Mentality tattoo. I just love his mindset,” Mamukelashvili said. “Growing up, I used to always say, “Mah-moo Mentality!’ So, I know it’s a little far from each other. But we are getting closer.”
When guard Collin Sexton, another new Laker, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018, James left and signed with the Lakers. When Sexton signed a two-year, $19-million deal with the Lakers this month, James left again.
Sexton could only laugh about missing out on playing with James.
“He’s just leaving every time I arrive,” Sexton said, laughing. “That’s what it is. No, but one of the other coaches made the same joke yesterday. It’s cool, I know. I’ve always wanted to team up with him for sure, but it’s definitely cool knowing him and just having normal conversations and stuff, so that’s cool.”
Sexton averaged 15.4 points and shot 48.5% last season with Chicago and Charlotte. He’s ready for whatever role coach JJ Redick and the Lakers want for him.
“They believe in me,” he said. “And I just feel like at the end of the day, whenever a coach believes in you and like he said, he’s going to be hard on me and yelling and screaming at me. So, I like that. I think that’s what gets the best from me.”
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WWE will swing for the fences for the second straight year when it hosts one of its major premium live events of the year at a Major League Baseball ballpark.
The company announced on Monday that Survivor Series: WarGames will take place at Daikin Park in Houston – the home of the Astros – on Saturday, Nov. 28. It follows up the success of last year’s Survivor Series: WarGames event, which took place at Petco Park in San Diego – the home of the Padres.
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Roman Reigns lands a Superman Punch on Brock Lesnar during Survivor Series at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif., on Nov. 29, 2025. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
“Houston is the perfect host city to celebrate this milestone chapter in Survivor Series’ storied history, and we look forward to partnering with Houston First and the Houston Astros to deliver an unforgettable event,” WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque said in a news release.
WarGames is a highly anticipated match, which has taken place yearly among wrestlers on the WWE roster since 2022. The premium live event has also seen some dramatic returns.
Stephanie Vaquer enters the ring during Survivor Series at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
In 2023, CM Punk came back to WWE at the end of the show and shocked the entire sports world. Randy Orton also made his in-ring return during the match. Last year, a mystery attacker interrupted the WarGames match and gave the win to The Vision and company.
It’s unclear what is in the cards right now for the 40th edition of the event.
“We are proud to be able to help bring one of the world’s premier entertainment brands to Houston for what promises to be an unforgettable holiday weekend,” said Michael Heckman, President and CEO of Houston First, which partnered with WWE to bring the event back to Houston.
Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio celebrate their win during Survivor Series at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
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“Hosting WWE Survivor Series will bring thousands of passionate fans to our city and generate a significant economic impact for community. Houston has earned a reputation for delivering world-class entertainment events, and we look forward to welcoming the WWE Universe to our destination.”
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