NASCAR spells big bucks for LV

Bob Shemeligian

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 10:14 a.m.

Winston Cup Series racing is approaching Southern Nevada with the speed of a stock car driver coming around a turn, and there's nary a hotel room, RV space or rental car available.

Only a few hotels reported weekend vacancies as of Thursday evening, and room prices are steep: $199 per night at Treasure Island, and $299 for Saturday night at Luxor.

As for RV spaces, they are already sold out at the California hotel-casino downtown, and there are few remaining among the 1,000 spaces at Sam's Town, the Boulder Strip hotel-casino that's sponsoring Saturday's Busch Series Grand National Division race.

"We expect to be sold out (of RV spaces) by the weekend," said general manager Joe Fuscaldo. "As for hotel rooms, we've been running at 100 percent occupancy for the past four days."

As expected, most national and area rental car agencies report all Las Vegas cars are leased out this weekend, and choices are limited at the few who have some remaining vehicles.

All this is bad news to vacationers who just happen to pick this weekend for a Las Vegas getaway, but it is good news for the area hospitality industry that's set for a very strong financial finish this weekend.

Area officials agree that the inaugural Winston Cup race scheduled Sunday afternoon at Southern Nevada's state-of-the-art Las Vegas Motor Speedway will herald a new era of even greater fame and financial prosperity to Southern Nevada.

The reason: Winston Cup is big-time NASCAR. While few local officials may know the acronym stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, they understand what it means in terms of dollars and prestige.

"The Winston Cup race is an unprecedented event," said Richie Clyne, Speedway chief executive officer. "And the Speedway is an ambassador to Las Vegas. It is bringing in new clientele that normally would not come to this city, and will return several times a year."

NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace noted, "I think Winston Cup will change the way people look at Las Vegas. Winston Cup is the hottest growing sport in the world, and racing will be great for the city and the hotels."

USA Weekend recently reported that last year more than 10 million people attended NASCAR events, and 150 million watched from home. Among major sports televised during their regular seasons, only pro football drew higher ratings than Winston Cup races, which feature top drivers flying around oval tracks at speeds approaching 200 mph.

"Everyone can relate to racing," said Jack Long, Speedway consultant. "As a kid you may not have played basketball or baseball, but practically everyone who drives a car has tried to go fast or pass someone at one time or another, and racing is part of this dynamic."

Sunday's Las Vegas 400 is the feature event in a weekend of racing at the Speedway, which also includes the Sam's Town-Las Vegas 300 Saturday and the World of Outlaws sprint car races Friday and Saturday evenings.

Clyne predicts more than 200,000 race fans will visit the Speedway throughout the weekend, and that three out of four will be from out of town. Those numbers translate to tens of millions of dollars in revenue for area hotels, restaurants and casinos.

"That's a huge infusion of visitors into this town and the economic impact is enormous," said Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Manny Cortez, president of the LVCVA, estimates that the crowd for the Winston Cup event "translates to about $32 million (to the local economy)."

Helping to get the word of Las Vegas NASCAR competition out to the rest of the nation is the medium of television. The Las Vegas 400 will be carried live on ABC on Sunday afternoon; the Sam's Town-Las Vegas 300 will be broadcast live on ESPN Saturday afternoon; and the World of Outlaws sprint car races will be broadcast on TNN Friday and Saturday evenings.

"Certainly it's nice to see our signage at the Speedway picked up by the cameras as well as hearing Saturday's Busch Series Grand National Division race referred to as the Sam's Town 300," Fuscaldo said.

While Winston Cup is considered the major league of NASCAR, Busch Series runs a not-too-distant second in terms of popularity, according to racing enthusiasts who refer to Busch Series as the "Triple-A of racing."

Many of the 102 hospitality suites overlooking the Speedway's mile-and-a-half oval track are leased by area hotel-casinos who utilize the luxury suites for high rollers and hotel VIPs.

Among the hotels and chains that lease suites are Coast Properties, the Boyd Group, Station Casinos, the Sahara and the Imperial Palace.

"We were one of the first to purchase a VIP suite at the Speedway for high rollers," said Jim Seagrave, vice president of advertising and marketing for the Stardust. "We have it contracted for a year and it looks like we'll renew the lease."

Yale Rowe, director of sales and marketing at the Sahara, said Winston Cup Series admissions "are some of the toughest tickets to come across in sports, and when you make it exclusive by offering admission to a hospitality suite at the Speedway, that's really something."

Las Vegas hotel-casino executives say race fans tend to make good casino patrons.

"Gaming and racing -- they're both about action, excitement and risk. In a lot of ways, they're really the same," said Van Heffner, president of the Nevada Hotel and Motel Association.

"It's a great mix, it really is," said Phil Cooper, spokesman for Caesars Palace hotel-casino. "After all, racing fans love action, excitement and entertainment. That's what you'll find at the Speedway and the casinos."

Another thing racing fans seem to love is NASCAR memorabilia.

"Business is booming here. It started getting real busy on Monday and we're just running around trying to fill orders," said Paul Otaguro, 42, owner of Las Vegas Speed Racers, a Strip retailer that sells authentic NASCAR merchandise ranging from clothing to collectables.

"Customers especially like the signed memorabilia," said Otaguro, a native of Hawaii who moved to Las Vegas in late 1996 just after the Speedway opened. Today he sells posters, lithographs, leather and suede jackets, T-shirts baseball caps and many other items associated with NASCAR.

"Once they opened the track, I knew Las Vegas would be the place to do business," said Otaguro, who added moving to Las Vegas was the smartest business decision of his life.

"If the Speedway weren't here, then I wouldn't be here," Otaguro said. "It draws racing, and NASCAR is extremely popular. NASCAR fans are extremely loyal, and they'll collect anything with 'their' driver's name on it."

Nationally, NASCAR merchandising has a way to go to catch up with National Football League sales. Sporting Goods Business magazine projected 1997 sales to reach $3 billion for the NFL and $770 million for NASCAR, but NASCAR officials predict accelerated sales ahead.

"Just as attendance at NASCAR races increases, so has merchandising associated with that sport, and we expect greater sales ahead," said Matthew O'Connor, spokesman for NASCAR, headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla. "With 10 million people attending NASCAR events each year, you can see how fast interest in this sport is growing."

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