Vegas not worried about another 'layered' weekend

LAS VEGAS -- The eight teams in the Mountain West Conference are holding their annual basketball tournament at the Thomas and Mack Center. A photo marketing convention brought 25,000 people to Las Vegas, a retail design convention another 20,000. The executive council of the AFL-CIO labor union is in town for a summit. And on Sunday, nearly 160,000 thousand race fans will converge on Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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Neon Garage

'New' Vegas ready

The Neon Garage, the centerpiece of Las Vegas Motor Speedway's multi-million-dollar renovation project, is ready for the track's annual Cup race.

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It's called a "layered weekend," the stacking of multiple events on top of one another in the same time frame, the kind of thing for which Las Vegas is famous. The confluence of convention season, March Madness and the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 is nothing new in a place with more than 135,000 hotel rooms. But it's the first weekend this big since the NBA All-Star Game arrived in February, bringing a new definition of Sin City along with it.

Several reports from that weekend focused not on the game itself but the chaotic atmosphere surrounding it -- interminable flight delays at McCarran International Airport, standstill traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard, and a sense of lawlessness on parts of the city's prime tourist area, The Strip. "Vegas screwed up," wrote ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, who took the city to task for not putting enough police on the streets.

Columnist Jason Whitlock of AOL.com agreed, calling All-Star weekend "an unmitigated failure." The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported 403 arrests over the long weekend, with 231 of those arrested coming from outside Southern Nevada, and 239 for prostitution-related crimes. And now here comes NASCAR, which according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority brought 94,875 people and a non-gaming economic impact of $129.3 million to town last year.

Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman isn't worried. The All-Star Game situation was the product of another "layered" weekend, that one also including the President's Day holiday, the Chinese New Year and a huge men's apparel convention. While the city may take a closer look at those layered weekends, there's no slowing a place that bills itself as the entertainment capital of the world.

"Unfortunately, a few bad apples tried to rot the bushel, but it's business as usual," Goodman wrote in an e-mail response to questions posed by NASCAR.COM. "In the future, we'll evaluate the 'layer' effect."

The Nextel Cup event at revamped Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which sold out last week, is the largest single-day sporting event in the state of Nevada. An estimated 157,000 people attended the race last year. Las Vegas Metro Police will staff the event with 30 officers on Friday and 70 on Saturday and Sunday, with support from the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Chris Powell, the track's general manager, knows his race is the city's first big sports event since the NBA All-Star Game. But he doesn't think it will receive any more scrutiny as a result.

"If this were our first NASCAR Nextel Cup event ever, I would think so. But I don't think so," Powell said. "What happened in that NBA game was, a certain few wanted to cause trouble. NASCAR fans are a different breed. I don't think we're going to have any of those issues. We've never had them in the past, and I have no reason whatsoever to believe we'll have them in the future. I don't think we'll be under a microscope."

Over on the neon landscape that is the Las Vegas Strip, there are all the signs of a big event weekend. Eric Clapton, Prince and Ray Romano are all set to perform. Pete Rose could be seen signing autographs Thursday at a memorabilia store inside the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops. And when the NASCAR haulers roll out of town Sunday evening, plans ramp up for a Champ Car street race and a sold-out bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand.

Just another week in Las Vegas. All-Star weekend? What All-Star weekend?

"The city's image as the great entertainment destination," Goodman wrote, "continues without blemish."