Step Aside, Art Basel. The Miami Grand Prix Has Arrived

 
Step aside, Art Basel. Your big brother is coming in fast. Really fast. The first annual Miami Grand Prix is upon us.

That’s right. The first annual Miami Grand Prix begins on Friday, May 6, as the culmination of Miami Race Week 2022. The event has already surpassed both the Super Bowl and Art Basel, which was previously heralded as the biggest revenue draw of the year for Miami-Dade County.

In previous years, Art Basel has been the crown jewel of the Miami social scene, bringing upwards of 80,000 visitors for the weekend. All of these visitors are very, very VIP (cue the Anna Delvey voice). But on a real note, these visitors do come in with some serious clout as referenced by Miami Today. Hotel rooms average $1,000/night during the weekend and the festival generates $1 million in resort taxes alone over the span of a a few days. The art show brings in more private flights than a Super Bowl and generates around $16 million in revenue for the community. Not a bad haul for the Magic City by any means.

Enough of the past. What is happening now?

While the numbers for both the Super Bowl hosting gigs and the annual Art Basel Miami Beach festival are impressive, the Miami Grand Prix has already surpassed them in a number of ways. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have descended upon Miami and Miami Beach to celebrate all things fast, and these are not just any visitors. As of the time of publication, the tickets start at $270 per person to watch the qualifying round and warm-ups. The tickets for Sunday’s actual race begin at $600 per person. This does not include VIP, food, drinks or parking. This payment gets you in the gate for one day. The folks who travel to enjoy this show are not rowdy spring breakers or ravers. They are distinguished titans of business from around the globe.

The Grand Prix has traditionally been popular with the well-heeled adrenaline junkie crowd (think startup founders, entrepreneurs, other people who make lots of money and love to live on the edge), but the sport has had a recent surge in popularity thanks to the Netflix series that goes behind the scenes of the sport.

Before 2012, the number one place to watch the Grand Prix was on Memorial Day Weekend in Monaco. Then the sport expanded to the US in Austin, Texas. This expansion re-invigorated the city and activated an entire section of town that was previously blighted. Over 400,000 people descended upon the Lone Star State to throw money around and watch the race. Year over year, the outcome was similar.

As the sport grew in popularity, intentions to expand were made clear. Organizers had looked for a second US location to host the races and options included New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami. Thanks to Stephen Ross, founder and chairman of Related Cos and owner of the Miami Dolphins, Miami was tapped to host a race each year for the next ten years. The race circuit is hosted outside Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami Gardens. While it is not the beachfront or downtown location that many had hoped for after NIMBY’s got ahold of the idea, there is plenty of room to host and the outcome could be very similar to that of Austin’s experience. The beach is not so far away and this is yet another avenue to activate a section of Miami-Dade County that has previously been sort of left out.

Stay tuned as we cover some of the fun and over-the-top events that are coming with the race weekend. We guarantee it will knock your socks off.