From leading the acquisition of Formula 1 by Liberty Media to running the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Renee Wilm’s legal background has been instrumental in bringing together stakeholders as disparate as county commissioners and hotel owners to make the race along the iconic Strip viable. Read her plans for year two…
INTERVIEW JAMES ROBERTS
THIS MONTH
GP Racing: You’ve been involved with the Las Vegas race since the start, but also with Liberty Media. Tell us about the work you do…
Renee Wilm: I’m a deal lawyer by training and I’ve been working with the John Malone group of companies since the 1990s. I’ve been fortunate to work on the big transactions we’ve done at Liberty Media and, as you can imagine, deals with SiriusXM, Atlanta Braves and DirecTV are always complex and challenging. In 2016 I flew to London as we were looking at Formula 1. I led that transaction, I remember we raised money through many different methods and it was one of the most complicated closing days I’ve ever experienced. We were excited about the acquisition and saw a tremendous opportunity, particularly in the United States. Shortly thereafter I was brought in-house as the chief legal officer.
GPR: So then how did you come to work with the Las Vegas Grand Prix?
RW: It was during Covid and [F1 CEO] Chase Carey really wanted a Las Vegas race up-and-running. I went over to Vegas to help out and started to get meetings going with the county commissioners and our founding partners. We started to generate a lot of excitement since there was an interest in bringing more international tourism post-Covid and to help make the city the sports entertainment capital of the world. Previously the slogan was ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ and that’s changed to ‘what happens in Vegas, only happens in Vegas.’
GPR: What was the impact locally of the first race that was held last November?
RW: One of the reasons we picked the week we did, because it was the lowest-grossing week for Las Vegas in the year. So we figured if we’re going to shut down the Strip and surrounding roads let’s do it on the weekend that would cause the least disruption. Unfortunately due to the amount
INTERVIEW of repaving required, there was a lot of traffic disruption throughout the year – more than anyone expected. But that work won’t be needed this year. Secondly we generated $1.5bn in the overall economic impact and that breaks down into $77m of
