How does Las Vegas keep pushing the envelope? The third Preview Las Vegas, held Jan. 16 at Las Vegas Convention Center’s East Hall, took a stab at uncovering the city’s past, present and future.
The event included an update on the economic status of Las Vegas, a discussion about WrestleMania 41 at Allegiant Stadium and a talk about what makes Sphere such an appealing attraction to visitors.
Las Vegas Is on the Up and Up
Since Preview’s beginnings in 2022, Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst at Applied Analysis, has been there to provide an overview of Nevada’s economic state. Now in the third year, he (and the state) did not disappoint. In his presentation, “Inflection Points,” Aguero started by taking the audience back to Las Vegas’ humble beginnings.
“It strikes me as remarkable that if we go back to 1905 when 1,500 people showed up in downtown Las Vegas to buy 1,200 acres that would ultimately become Las Vegas, I wonder if any one of them would ever imagine that it would become what it is today,” he said. “I imagine when those very first casinos were built on what was nothing more than a dirt road next to a dude range, that they would imagine we would turn those into the most phenomenal hotel casinos on planet Earth.”
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He went on to name several other developments that Las Vegas has been home to since the early 20th century: the creation of Fremont Street, AKA Glitter Gulch, made possible by vast amounts of electricity provided by Boulder Dam; the first flight to Las Vegas in 1926; and Union Pacific Railroad making Las Vegas a stop between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
Today, Las Vegas is seeing the development of yet more projects that will only add to its appeal, such as Brightline’s Southern California-Las Vegas connection in 2028, and Warner Bros. and Sony’s move to Las Vegas as the next movie-making hub.
“I wonder if those early sporting events in the old convention center and other places outside ever could have imagined us hosting the biggest event in the world from a sporting perspective or being home to a world championship sports team. I doubt it. I doubt it,” he said.
Economic Production
“The United States is producing more today than it has at any point in United States history,” he said. “Oh, and by the way, it’s not just us. This is the entire world. Everywhere in the entire world is expected to see growth.” The one exception here is Equatorial Guinea on the west coast of Africa.
Despite this high production (mostly) across the board, consumer confidence is lower than in previous years. “It’s not at the high levels we’ve seen during similar periods of growth,” Aguero said. “What we see from consumer spending is that it’s also at the highest level we’ve ever seen, and that makes us a little bit nervous because we’re also building some of that on borrowing [money] and that can be a little illusory.”
The Prices are Too Damn High
Aguero put up a chart showing the prices of consumer products like electricity, airline fares, food, vehicles, childcare and more, highlighting that the price of everything has gone up. “We know that consumers are being stretched,” he said. “This is squeezing consumers, and is something we ought to keep a close eye on, because those consumers that are spending more, those consumers that are taking out more debt, are also saving about the lowest level we have ever seen them save in modern history. The combination of these things is a little tricky.”
Naturally, this increase in F&B and airline fares reaches into meetings and events as well, creating a strain on meeting professionals as they try to negotiate their way around higher prices in most sectors.
In “Helpful Budget Tips for Event Planners in a Post-Covid World,” Heather Pilcher, CEO and executive producer of Blue Spark Event Design, talked about her struggles with purchasing F&B for events. “The prices are so high for the individual menu items that the value of what you’re getting doesn’t equate, a lot of times,” she said. “I’m getting so much less food, even though I’m meeting the food and beverage minimum, because the prices of meals are so high, so that is really a struggle.”
WrestleMania 41 and Building a Sports Economy
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill sat down with WWE President Nick Khan to talk about the wrestling and entertainment company’s 41st WrestleMania being brought to the city at Allegiant Stadium April 19-20.
A year and half ago, WWE partnered with Zuffa, operating company of mixed martial arts organization UFC, to create TKO Group Holdings. “When you see the success of the [NHL] Golden Knights, when you see the success of the [NFL] Raiders, when you saw Allegiant Stadium being built, when you saw T-Mobile Arena being built, to me, that all started with UFC,” Khan said. “There were obviously Vegas guys, Dana White, the Fertittas [Zuffa founders]. They believed in the city. They believed the city could be international players. And they went out and they did it.”
“At WWE, we always consider ourselves as the underdog,” Khan told Hill at the beginning of their discussion. “We’re just at the starting line. We’re just at the beginning of where we want to go. We want to be one of the biggest properties in the United States and all around the world.”
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Hill asked about community outreach leading up to and during the weekend of WrestleMania, to which Khan answered that there will be plenty. “WWE is top shelf in what we do the week of WrestleMania. It’ll be a week-long event. Remove the two nights of WrestleMania, remove Friday Night SmackDown at T-Mobile Arena, remove the Monday night, at T-Mobile as well, the entire week will be activated in the community,” he said. “Our wrestlers, known as the superstars, are all hands-on with this. We want to give back. We want to leave any city we go to better than we found it.”
Starting on April 17 at Las Vegas Convention Center, Fanatic Events (the same company that partnered with Proto Hologram at New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center) will partner with WWE to bring WWE World to the convention center for a five-day interactive experience, which will feature autograph sessions and meet-and-greets with WWE stars. When they launched it for the first time at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, Khan said, over 40,000 people attended.
Bill Walshe Talks Sphere
Fresh off an innovative keynote from Delta Air Lines at this year’s CES tech event at Las Vegas Convention Center, Bill Walshe, executive vice president of Sphere Entertainment Group, spoke about Sphere’s placement in Las Vegas as a premier entertainment venue. “I think brands using Sphere to help promote their corporate message is going to be something that we will see happen more and more frequently,” he said.
“For some, Sphere is the greatest live music venue in the world,” Walshe said. “For other people, it’s about the epic, cinematic experiences that take place, marquee events that happen both on the outside and within Sphere, and also corporate days.”
With Sphere’s 4D technology—haptic seats that let audiences feel the on-screen action and smells that move throughout the venue to match what’s being discussed during a show or presentation—it allowed Delta to create a memorable experience beyond anything any other airline has done. “[Delta] wanted to celebrate their heritage, but do so in a forward-looking way, where they were talking about the utilization of technology, of AI, of planning and plotting the path to Delta’s future, in order to set expectations that they will become an airline unlike any that has been seen before. What better way to do it than in a venue unlike anything that has been seen before?”
