Putting the Grand in Grand Prix

We’re less than three days away from official race week in Miami, and hundreds of thousands of people are flocking to The Magic City.

Ticket requests are through the roof. It’s been reported that there have been over 250,000 ticket requests for the Miami Grand Prix at Hard Rock Stadium.

The current expectation is that over 300,000 people will flood the area regardless of if they are attending the race or practice or qualifying.

While the official race weekend begins May 6, there’s a week of activity we’ll talk a little bit more about below.

Let’s take a look at some of the economics:

• Race weekend tickets were initially sold for prices starting close to $1,000, with single-day tickets beginning near $600. Currently, general admission tickets are $300 for Friday (practice) and $900 for Saturday (qualifying) and Sunday (race). General admission does not guarantee a viewing angle.

• Over on the secondary ticketing market, the average price of a ticket is $2,414 for the race. According to FOS, tickets reached as high as $33,704 as of Wednesday.

• Miami F1 GP organizers are estimating that the event will bring an annual economic impact of $400 million to Miami Gardens, including 35,000 hotel bookings and 4,000 new jobs.

• Broward County, just north of Miami Gardens, is expecting $50 million in economic activity.

Everybody Wants In

All sorts of companies and brands are going all-in on the Miami GP. Crypto exchange FTX is hosting a three-day concert in Miami Beach in partnership with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and IWC Schaffhausen.

Uber-excluisve Italian-American restaurant, Carbone, is serving up $3,000-a-person dinners for 200 guests per night. They are self-describing it as a “celebration of indulgence”.

Nightclub E11even is bringing in Travis Scott to perform for the first time since the Astroworld incident.

General admission tickets begin at a reasonable price of $150 (female) and work its way up to $250 (male). Table reservations at the club are ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. So, promoters are likely looking at Travis to be a big draw for the event.Hotels are offering high-end packages like The Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s $1 million private jet package for its poolside party celebrating the Miami Grand Prix in May.

The St. Regis Bal Harbour is offering round trip private jets, a private oceanfront villa, and diamond jewelry design from De Beers for $110,000.

Bits and Bobs

This partner billboard was spotted. Eight Sleep became an official sleep partner of Mercedes-AMG Petronas earlier this year. Eight Sleep is based in Miami.

This CBS Miami news story is expecting the Grand Prix to bring in more money than a Super Bowl…

Teams are going all in on this as well. I’ve heard from numerous folks inside F1 refer to this as a “Tier 1 event” and that the focus on the United States as a market, beginning in Miami, has become “top priority”.

Other sights around Miami, as spotted by Reddit user u/pengouin85

Selfish Plug

Grab this Miami tee (or hoodie) over at TheF1Guy.com. I partnered up with BreakingT to bring you the current collection and we’ll be adding more throughout the season.