-Worldwide attention will soon be on Las Vegas for year two of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Thousands of fans, celebrities, and F1 team members are arriving the third week of November for this event, and locals still have several questions after last year's race, ranging from traffic concerns to understanding F1's economic impact here.

And here to answer those we welcome Lori Nelson-Kraft, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Lori, welcome.

-It's great to reconnect, Amber.

-It is so nice.

I want to start broadly.

And for those who question the impact of this event and whether it is worth it for all the work that is required, is it worth it to Southern Nevada?

What do you say?

(Lori Nelson-Kraft) I say it is a spectacular fan experience, and it put Las Vegas on a world stage in a way it never experienced before.

LVCA even said that Race Week publicity alone that was generated last year for Las Vegas was six times the amount Las Vegas typically receives in a given year.

-Wow!

And that will ultimately end up in what, more visitors unrelated to this event?

-Not only F1 fans, but it's an opportunity for Las Vegas to have an international stage in a way that it continues to want to grow its international visitation.

Whether it's by broadcast or bringing in visitors from around the world, it kind of two-prong achieves a lot from a tourism standpoint.

Even if you're watching that race in Singapore or in Europe, to see Las Vegas, to see its amenities and offerings and see the beauty that is the world's number one destination helps to generate tourism for years to come.

-What are the key improvements from last year to this year?

-So many.

Let's start from a local perspective with the circuit installation.

We reduced the circuit installation 65% over last year, and so we believe locals have seen a dramatic improvement in what that work has been.

It's primarily been overnight.

We have found solutions to lessen the burden.

We have, thanks to LVCVA, an employee mobility program kicking in Race Week to ensure that all the hospitality employees can get to their shifts.

We have made Formula 1 more accessible for everyone.

If you want to come to the race, there's expanded ticket offerings from single-day tickets to general admission, so a whole ladder from a pricing standpoint.

But we also are introducing a free fan experience the two days during Race Weekend.

Friday and Saturday, from 10 to 6 p.m., we are offering locals and visitors alike the opportunity to see, feel, and touch the thrill of F1, learn more about the sport.

It's across the street from Wynn Las Vegas.

And making it free and accessible for everyone to be part of is a big win.

We put 70,000 free tickets out in the universe, and half of them were taken by locals.

And we're thrilled over that.

And so that's another improvement.

And so those are just some of the things that we're seeing in the evolution from inaugural year.

-The fan experience that you talked about, the NFL does something similar for Super Bowl, but they charge, unlike F1 is doing.

And you had talked about the necessity of making that emotional impact with locals.

Among locals are employees.

It sounds like, to me, there is a plan in place for every employee who works on the Strip that's not going to have to battle the same amount of traffic.

What does that look like?

-Well, first of all, it's important that we take care of our workforce.

It's important that we acknowledge the local community needs to get in and around the community during Race Week, and we also want to make sure it's a great experience for our visitors who get here.

So making sure all of our hospitality workers can be on time and get to their shifts easily was really important, and LVCVA helped us solve that Wednesday through Sunday morning with a park-and-ride solution, and we're really pleased about that.

And so that's really important.

In addition to that, for the past six to eight months, we hold hundreds of stakeholder meetings, from large forums to individual corridors along the circuit, to make sure we're communicating and we're addressing their concerns and we're listening.

And the circuit buildout came with an enormous amount of feedback from everyone that really played into how do we solve and improve?

A lot of coordination with Clark County, their Public Works Department, Business Licensing, the county manager's office, the commissioners.

Everyone has really been invested together with Metro and so many other agencies in the planning and coordination to be able to host an event of this magnitude.

And so we're grateful for those partnerships, the collaboration, but it is-- there are a lot of moving pieces in order to do that.

And I'd say the last thing that has been exceptionally helpful in the circuit installation is we stood up an interactive website week by week so people could plan if they were going to be in and around the circuit to know if there was any circuit work that was taking place that would alter their commute in any way.

We continued with our twice weekly texting program in partnership with the county to provide realtime information to plan for the week ahead.

We believe communication is vital to helping everyone understand what's happening.

And you know, we hope that some of these programs that have been in place, and we've seen from anecdotal feedback, have been great improvements as we moved into year two.

-So what about the businesses that claim last year the route either shut off business entirely to them or the traffic significantly impacted customers' ability to get to their business?

Will they have those same issues this year?

-Well, we listened to all those businesses in and around the circuit.

We took feedback from the community, and we adjusted our plans as we worked with Clark County.

And you saw several of it throughout.

Now that the circuit is pretty much fully installed, you saw a 65% reduction in what that impact has been, making it a lot easier for the commuters.

The reduction in the temporary vehicular bridge that is on Flamingo between Las Vegas Boulevard and Koval was reduced by 50%, it was placed on the south side of the street, access is maintained into all those businesses, and so that was really important.

And we've met with all those businesses, and we meet-- -Some of whom are suing you.

-Correct.

I can't speak to 2023 and some of that pending litigation, but I can share with you that in good faith, we continue to meet with all the businesses along the circuit, whether virtually and in person, and keep them apprised and give feedback and make sure that they're prepared.

We even prepared customized maps for the 30 businesses in and around the circuit so they knew during the road closures what we refer to as "hot track."

They knew their ingress and egress and specific details so that as they went to talk to their employees, their vendors, their guests, or tenants, they could push out and use those tools.

And we really want to be good partners.

We're invested in Las Vegas.

We've got a team of 100 local folks who are helping us stand up the race and nearly a couple thousand seasonal employees as well.

We live here, we're proud to be part of Las Vegas, and we want to do right by the community.

-Are there any issues that simply cannot be resolved?

One that I thought of was, because of the timing of this race, it being so late, people aren't going to probably go to a show beforehand.

They may have a late dinner and then go, but how do you impact or help the shows, for example, the entertainment industry on the Strip?

-Well, the three nights that make up the three-day ticket that are part of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix experience are five-hour experiences.

There's 19 other hours in the day to enjoy all Vegas has to offer.

And you know, we are using this race to drive tourism and to expose everyone to Las Vegas, and there is plenty of offerings and amenities that are available to all of our visitors who come.

-Okay.

Initially, Formula 1 was asking that Clark County contribute some money for the road repairs that were needed to make this happen, about $40 million for infrastructure.

Where does that stand now?

-I was surprised to hear that that is still lingering.

Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix funded-- it was actually 35 million, and that was for the paving project.

And we have taken that responsibility, and that has been long paid for.

-That's a big deal!

-Absolutely.

-Okay.

So just so everyone knows, F1 has paid for that?

-Yeah.

And you know what?

The County Commission, when we did a presentation update to them in August, Commissioner Gibson noted that in his remarks, that he too felt like that information wasn't out there.

And he wanted to clarify because it was a lingering issue.

We appreciate the opportunity for you to share that with your viewers.

-What about TV licensing fees?

I mean, will people be able to go to different locations on the Strip, or even downtown, and watch this?

I know that in the past, there were bars concerned about the price of what they may be charged in order to broadcast that from their venue.

-So the, the race itself is on ESPN.

Anyone can watch it.

Where licensing comes into effect is throughout the race circuit, we have our fan zones.

There are several organizations that have gone into licensing rights to show a watch party.

And in order to use our name, the event name, you do have to enter into an agreement with us.

But you can flip on your TV, you can watch it.

But if you start charging for a party, using the event name, all that, that's where we look to organizations to enter into a licensing agreement.

But we have gifted our license.

City of Henderson will be showing-- we are in partnership with them in Clark County to have a watch party down on Water Street, and we have lent our name and given licensing rights to that.

We are hosting a watch party for the members of Nellis Air Force Base, and they are going to be having a watch party.

And within there, we've given them swag and some food and beverage and actually a pair of tickets to raffle off for next year's race.

So we want everyone to be able to watch the race, whether it's in person or in the comfort of their own home or at a watch party.

-Last thing, the economic impact of this.

What did this event last year mean to the state?

-So we put out $1.5 billion in economic impact.

Of that, you can take out 600 million that you probably won't see when we produce this year's economic impact report, because that was a one-time buying land and constructing a 300,000 square foot facility that is year round, called Grand Prix Plaza.

But last year's race generated $77 million throughout the state.

And as that trickled down, 22 million of that went directly to the schools.

We understand that it is the single largest event that has been hosted in Las Vegas.

It even surpassed the Super Bowl and its taxes that it generated to the state.

So that is kind of a snapshot of the taxes alone coming back into our community.

-Benefiting the state of Nevada.

Lori Nelson-Kraft with Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

And thank you for watching.