Las Vegas resorts capitalize on popularity of NASCAR

Friday, March 5, 2004 | 11:36 a.m.

Resort marketing experts say Las Vegas' NASCAR weekend has grown to New Year's Eve and National Finals Rodeo enthusiasm levels.

Boyd Gaming Corp., which operates the Sam's Town hotel-casino -- title sponsor for Saturday's Busch Series race known as the Sam's Town 300 -- is already selling hotel and race packages for next year.

Coast Casinos Inc., another big race booster, is capitalizing on the emergence of Brendan Gaughan, son of Coast chief executive Michael Gaughan, as a home-grown favorite on the NASCAR racing circuit.

Other resorts have filled their calendars with VIP meet-and-greet sessions with drivers, getting fans close enough to smell the high-performance fumes on their racing gear.

And some companies are just taking advantage of the big stage offered by professional racing and Las Vegas to promote their products.

"All five of our properties, including our downtown hotels, are full," said Dan Stark, director of marketing for Boyd Gaming. "Several years ago, you could come right up to the race weekend (and get a room), but now, if you don't have reservations by Christmas or so, you're out of luck."

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority acknowledges that race week has become a big draw. But Kevin Bagger, the LVCVA's head of research, said comparing race week with other events is like comparing apples and oranges.

"The (NASCAR) race is easily the largest single-day ticketed event in Las Vegas," Bagger said, adding that 97,000 out-of-town guests were in Las Vegas for it last year and that 145,000 spectators crowded the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

By comparison, the LVCVA expected 274,000 people to be in Las Vegas on Super Bowl Sunday. An analysis of actual attendance has not been completed.

It's difficult to draw comparisons, Bagger said, because, like the following for the National Finals Rodeo, there may be more NASCAR fans in town than who actually attend the races. The LVCVA doesn't do a full tourism analysis of the race weekend. But last year, 98.1 percent of the city's hotel rooms were full on race weekend; for the Super Bowl, only 91.7 percent of the rooms were expected to be filled.

"The events are all different," Bagger said. "New Year's Eve is a universal celebration. The NASCAR race is a ticketed event. The Super Bowl is a big spectator event that isn't even in town. A lot of attention is paid to the Super Bowl because it's such a strong wagering weekend," which isn't the case with the NASCAR race.

But the fact that there are plenty of people is good news for hotel and product marketers.

"We leverage our sponsorships, which is expensive to do," Stark said. "You have to be willing to do the publicity, the advertising and the promotions and we do all of the above. You can't just slap a sponsor's name on it and say, 'Show me the love,' it doesn't work that way."

Boyd officials aren't saying how much they are spending to market the racing weekend, but industry experts say its in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For Stark, getting race fans to fill rooms is a year-round project. As NASCAR fans pour into Las Vegas this weekend, they'll receive pitches for packages for next year's event.

Stark has a brochure offering a variety of race packages, with three- or four-night stays at Sam's Town, tickets to either or both the Sam's Town 300 Busch Series and UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races, transportation to and from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and food vouchers. Prices will range from $1,100 to $1,630 per person based on double occupancy.

The Coast chain -- currently a Boyd rival, but soon to become a sister company when a $1.3 billion acquisition by Boyd is completed -- is another big NASCAR booster in town.

"Coast has long been associated with racing," said David Sheleheda, the company's public relations manager. "This year, we've stepped it up a notch with Brendan Gaughan being on the Nextel Cup circuit."

Sheleheda said one of the pubs at the Orleans hotel-casino -- called Brendan's -- has taken on a Monday Night Football aura when NASCAR races are on television thanks to Gaughan's participation.

Other properties also see the big races as a financial bonanza. Dozens of driver appearances have been scheduled all over the city at various venues. One of the most popular places for driver sightings has been at the NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara hotel-casino on the Strip. Other appearances were scheduled at Treasure Island, Harrah's, the Palms, the MGM Grand, and the Fremont hotel-casinos, Hooters, M&Ms World at the Showcase Mall, Johnny Walker RV and the Callaway Golf Center.

The Flamingo set up a meet-and-greet driver session for invited guests. The Imperial Palace, a Strip hotel-casino with an auto museum, is offering room-race ticket packages and bus transportation to the track, said public relations manager Jeremy Handel.

Other companies are capitalizing on the race to showcase products and discuss industry trends. ChevronTexaco is boosting its Havoline oil brand and meeting with reporters to discuss the oil industry and its relationship with the auto industry.

Coca Cola, Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser beer and the Jack Daniel's whiskey brands are collaborating with the Nevada Beverage Co. on displays in local stores and developing marketing partnerships for products, united under the common theme of the Las Vegas races.

Nextel, in its first year as the NASCAR racing series title sponsor, has jumped into the Las Vegas race in a big way, tying a major product familiarization event for the company's clients to the race weekend.

As a title sponsor, Nextel gets a few hundred tickets for races that occur at tracks all over the country. For the Las Vegas race, the company is getting more than 1,000 to accommodate 1,200 authorized sales representatives for Nextel who are meeting this week at Mandalay Bay.

Michael Robichaud, senior director of sports and entertainment marketing for Nextel, said Las Vegas is the ideal place to expose sales representatives to his company's brand and that is occurring this week on several fronts.

In addition to the conference and the race, Nextel is sponsoring The Nextel Experience, a 6,400-square-foot interactive mobile display, at the speedway. The display, which debuted last month at the Daytona Motor Speedway in Florida, has racing artifacts, simulators and Nextel technology displays.