For Las Vegas, California may offer a cautionary tale

They are two facilities bound by geography and the NASCAR schedule, separated only by the width of the Mojave Desert and 237 miles of Interstate 15. Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway of Southern California both opened in the late 1990s. They both feature snow-capped mountains in the distance. They're both intermediate tracks with sparkling infield facilities, and the occasional celebrity seen wandering through the garage area.
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There's another similarity, as well. Las Vegas wants a second annual Sprint Cup date. And California is an example of what can happen if you get one.
For years now Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith has been lobbying for a second NASCAR weekend for his 1.5-mile track in the desert, a refrain that increased in significance the instant he acquired New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the two dates that came with it. And who can blame him? Las Vegas is a complete, unqualified hit, a 142,000-seat facility that's sold out six years in a row. It's provided a needed pro sports presence to a city that otherwise hangs its hat on a golf tournament and the occasional fight. And it's received overwhelming support from local leaders in return. When Smith wanted to build a drag strip in Las Vegas, he didn't have to threaten to move the racetrack to Pahrump.
They've expanded the grandstand, they've increased the banking, they've repaved the surface, they've revamped the garage. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway that the Sprint Cup tour visits on Sunday is an absolute temple of speed, an unparalleled facility in the most visited city in America. A second date would be a sure thing, right?
Maybe. The last time something in NASCAR seemed like a sure thing, it was the awarding of a second date to another racetrack far west with a long line of sellout crowds behind it. The facility then known as California Speedway had drawn a full house for every Cup event it had ever hosted when parent company International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR took a date from North Carolina Speedway and a schedule spot from Darlington Raceway so the 2-mile facility in Fontana could have a second race weekend. With a metro area of 16 million to draw from, a car-crazy Southern California culture, and a speedway that had lived seven years without seeing an empty seat, the move seemed as sure as a Kobe Bryant dunk.
Except it wasn't. In the five years since California was awarded that second date, the speedway hasn't sold out. In some cases, it hasn't come close. ISC officials seemed to overestimate the demand. NASCAR saddled the track with a rainy spring date and a 100-degree summer one. Track officials have the thankless and unenviable job of trying to sell tickets in a fractured and fickle market with plenty of people, but also plenty of other sports teams, plenty of diversions, and plenty of other things to do.
Fast facts
What
UAW-Dodge 400
When
4:30 p.m. ET Sunday
TV
FOX, 3:30 p.m. ET
Radio
PRN, 4:30 p.m. ET
Track Page Tickets Travel
The result is the 92,000-seat gorilla in the NASCAR universe, an under-performing facility that draws more critics by the hour. In their defense, speedway officials have tried nearly everything -- bridging the 50-mile gap between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, using Juan Montoya to market to the Hispanic population, cross-promoting with other area pro teams. And certain things are beyond their control, as this past weekend's rain-delayed Auto Club 500 will attest. Native Southern Californians will tell you that late February often brings not the blue skies and sunshine the region is known for, but wet, cold weather. In that regard, California and Rockingham have something in common.
Rain is rarely an issue across the desert and over the state line in Las Vegas, where NASCAR has been a bigger hit than Celine Dion. As the big casinos on the Strip would indicate, visitors to Sin City like large, fancy facilities with plenty of bells and whistles, and they certainly have one in a racetrack with a spa and a double-decked garage. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a gleaming facility with plenty of amenities and tremendous ticket demand. In fact, it's a lot like the California Speedway of five years ago, albeit with 62,000 more seats.
So what happens if Bruton Smith one day gets his second Sprint Cup date for his 1.5-mile desert oasis? Does it take off like Bristol or New Hampshire, and pack in another 142,000? Or do the crowds tail off as officials realize their demand was plenty enough for one annual race, but not enough for two? Yes, Las Vegas draws a staggering 39 million visitors annually. As Smith will gladly point out, it has more hotel rooms than any other city on earth. It's a beguiling place where you can drink on the sidewalk and win money and pack a month's worth of living into one long weekend.
SMI has put a lot of capital improvement dollars into the Las Vegas track, and you don't recoup that cash while a facility is sitting idle. But could general manager Chris Powell and his capable staff fill the place twice a year? The population of metro Las Vegas is 1.7 million, but California hasn't been able to do it despite a population of 4 million in the San Bernardino area, and 12 million more in greater L.A., and 50,000 fewer seats. The housing slump has taken a bite out of southern Nevada's otherwise robust economy, and all those service industry jobs don't make for the highest of median household incomes.
But what about those 39 million annual visitors, roughly a quarter of which come from Southern California? Las Vegas Motor Speedway is no different from the rest of the city -- tourist dollars make it go. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau, more than 114,000 of the 142,000 spectators attending last season's event were from outside southern Nevada. Ultimately, the success of a second race at Las Vegas would hinge on whether those people would be willing to come back. No question, Las Vegas Boulevard is a more attractive return destination than the old steel mill that is Fontana. But in a region of the country that's becoming almost as saturated with Sprint Cup races as the Southeast was 10 years ago, that's still no guarantee.
Yet if anyplace can make it work, surely it's Las Vegas, that dizzying neon empire where risk is all part of the allure. Bruton Smith has the city, has the speedway, has the fan base -- has everything, it seems, but that elusive second date. Yet all the motorsports mogul needs to do is look west, beyond the McCullough Range and the Devil's Playground and all those tall mountains and dry canyons, to find a very real cautionary tale.
The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.