Formula One has pumped the brakes on a controversial plan to force Las Vegas clubs and restaurants to cough up millions of dollars in licensing fees by threatening to block their views of the hotly anticipated Grand Prix race, The Post has learned.
The posh car racing league has slashed the price that venues located along the November event’s 3.8-mile circuit must pay to around $50,000 each — down sharply from a $1,500-per-head demand that would have resulted in a tab of $3 million for a major venue with a capacity of 2,000, as the The Post exclusively reported.
Insiders said F1 — owned by billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media — has backed down after allegedly threatening to put up barricades, lights and other obstructions in front of businesses that refused to pay the licensing fees, which had been based on the maximum capacity of venues according to city fire codes.
“This venue fee is much smarter,” a source close to restaurant owners said, adding, “It’s much more in line with what the Super Bowl will charge” when it is played in Las Vegas next year.
While Formula One has charged similar fees at other street course locales like Monaco, Las Vegas venues claimed that casinos are looking for high rollers to come and gamble several times a year. If customers spend too much cash on F1 trip, they may delay their next visit, one executive argued.
The cheapest ticket packages available for the race begin at $2,000.
In addition to an unobstructed view, the $50,000 venue fee will grant restaurants and clubs a direct feed of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will be held Nov. 19, sources said.
“There is a certain line they are crossing [by] telling someone who has spent billions on their property that you are shutting the Strip down for construction and then asking them to pay for seats,” a source told The Post last month.
A Formula One spokesman declined comment.
Las Vegas has spent millions repaving the famed Strip and other adjacent streets as it prepares for the first F1 road race in US history.
The three-day spectacle from Nov. 16-18, culminating with the Grand Prix on Saturday night, is expected to draw about 300,000 fans.
The league’s other races — in Miami and Austin, Texas — are held on closed tracks. Las Vegas had previously hosted an F1 event on the Caesars Palace grounds in the early 1980s.
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