Southern Nevada nonprofits, event workers gear up for big business with help from Formula 1

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - People around the world can now pre-register for tickets to Formula 1′s Las Vegas Grand Prix race next year. Meanwhile, nonprofit leaders and events workers are just some of the Southern Nevadans revving up to cash big checks from this massive event.

“This is powerful for all of us,” said Brooke Neubauer, who founded The Just One Project.

When signing up for pre-registration, F1 says fans will be asked to donate $7.77 to the Las Vegas Grand Prix Foundation, “which will deploy these donations for projects improving the lives of Southern Nevada residents, including providing one million free meals to the local Las Vegas community.

Neubauer’s nonprofit is just one of the charities benefiting.

“They have been doing a listening tour, and they have chosen The Just One Project as one of their charities to support this year, we are so grateful,” said Neubauer.

She said impacts from these donations will be felt by those in need.

“We will be able to serve more clients and really help them get to a self-sustainable place where they don’t have to shop at our no-cost community market. They can shop at a grocery store of their choice,” said Neubauer.

Three Square is also getting a portion of your donations from this F1 preregistration event.

“We are absolutely thrilled that this is gonna benefit Three Square,” said Kate Hibbard Gaines, director of development, Three Square. “One out of four children go home to a food insecure household. So every donation that goes to the foundation, that then goes out to Three Square or one of our partners, is then just gonna have such a tremendous impact.”

But it’s not just the nonprofits aiming to rev up their engines and rake in the dough. The event weekend is anticipated to generate $1 billion in indirect economic impact.

Local stagehands and event workers will be given plenty of work opportunities to choose from with this event.

“It’s gonna be so much work that everybody’s gonna be working,” Phil Jaynes, President, IATSE 720, Las Vegas’ stagehands union.”

He said they will get calls to work the race itself: “I would imagine there’s gonna be video walls all throughout the track. There’s gonna be broadcast areas, stages. A lot of those are jobs that our guys do regularly.”

But he also said they will be called to work the parties surrounding the event.

“All of those sponsors are gonna be here in town and all the different hotels having their parties for their sponsors and their contributors, so we’ll also get a lot of work from that,” said Jaynes.

He added, “The fan base for Formula 1, it’s the people who can afford to travel to these events... So the amount of money that’s gonna be involved in this event, I think it’s gonna be the biggest event that we’ve had in Las Vegas.”

The construction site recently purchased by F1 on Koval and Harmon will act as the pit for the race, then the track will travel north on Koval, up and around the MSG Sphere, and to the Strip via Sands Avenue, where drivers will head south again.

The track for the Vegas event is 3.8 miles long from start to finish, according to F1, with top speeds estimated to be more than 212 miles per hour.

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