A recent eruption of sports and live entertainment innovations
offers jackpot summer fun that has nothing to do with slot machines.
“So where is the actual race held?” the visitor asks, admiring the zippy go-karts at Grand Prix Plaza (4400 Koval Ln., 702-514-1318, grandprixplaza.com), an immersive Formula 1 fan experience located a block off the Vegas Strip. “What part of the city?”
“You mean, the Las Vegas Grand Prix?” the facility rep answers, slightly bemused, pointing to the outdoor track. “Right here! That’s the pit lane, and we’re standing over the paddocks.”
Now it’s the visitor’s turn to be bemused. He saw the cocktail lounge, the mountains of F1 memorabilia, the karts and thought: “This is Topgolf for F1 fans.” No judgments! Topgolf is a hoot. And who doesn’t love the idea of racing miniature electric replicas of the world’s fastest racecars around a 1,500-foot track at 30 miles per hour? It’s a team-building/company-holiday-party no-brainer.
But Grand Prix Plaza is much more than fan-friendly facsimile. Come November, the two-story compound does a Transformer fold-out routine and becomes headquarters for the Las Vegas Grand Prix (f1lasvegasgp.com) – a recent addition to the Formula 1 calendar which folds a large portion of the Strip itself into a sinuous, 3.85-mile race course. When all is said and done, the event will generate close to $1 billion in economic impact after the circuit’s 22 drivers descend on the city for the 2026 race.
Plenty of other F1 host-cities have museums and branded attractions, but none are as relentlessly interactive as Grand Prix Plaza, which invites fans to change the tires on a replica racer among other hands-on amusements. And no other fan experience is located in a bona fide F1 garage facility, where the 1,000-horsepower vehicles are pampered and prepped by teams in excess of 100 people, and serviced by lightning-fast pit crews during the race itself.
Vegas has always excelled at facsimile, from the legion Elvis impersonators to the ersatz Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas to the cosplay gondola rides at The Venetian. But now, with the Grand Prix and other self-illuminating sports and entertainment innovations, the city seems to be entering a new phase as an authentic cultural force. Less gaming, more game-on.
LV in the Round
Gaming revenue is down on the Las Vegas Strip, you might already know – off more than 11 percent year-over-year in 2025 alone, continuing a decade-long trend. Thus, casinos and local businesses are cannily pushing their chips to other diversions – including the illuminated, 366-foot diversion with the giant LED eyeball that unnervingly stares into the cabin of your Boeing 737 as you fly over town.
Opened in 2023 after a four-year, $2.3 billion buildout, Sphere Las Vegas (255 Sands Ave., 725-258-6724, thespherevegas.com) has come to symbolize the recalibrated Vegas entertainment formula. Equipped with “beamforming technology,” “wave-field synthesis” and other wicked-cool innovations that you probably need a master’s in acoustical engineering to fully understand, it definitely sounds like a $2.3 billion concert venue, but it’s the 16,000-square-foot LED screen that wraps around its 20,000 seats like a mescaline-fueled mental breakdown that defines the venue. It’s simply a sound-and-vision immersion experience nonpareil.
After a 40-performance U2 residency to open the venue, the Sphere fell on some rough times, registering a $341 million operating loss in 2024. Ironically, it was an 87-yeard-old movie classic, The Wizard of Oz, that helped the high-tech dome break through the viral sound barrier. Remastered and enhanced with “4D” wind effects and AI eye-candy galore, the movie has been an all-ages, all-demos smash hit since its release last August. The venue’s jam-packed 2026 calendar includes overlapping residencies of No Doubt (May 6-June 13), the Eagles (September 18-November 28) and Metallica (October 1-March 13, 2027).
Of course, Vegas has long favored big-ticket live entertainment, from Elvis to Britney to Cirque du Soleil, so The Sphere doesn’t change the equation so much as amplifies it. Something that’s truly new: the bawdy, counterculture brilliance of Spiegelworld (spiegelworld.com). A traditional acrobat troupe shot through with the merry moral sabotage of trash-movie impresario John Waters, Spiegelworld has produced around a dozen shows over the past decade – hilarious, sexy, Rabelaisian convulsions of smarmy sword-swallowers, homoerotic jugglers and scantily-clad bubble girls that would have old Vegas’ gangster overlords leaping out of their spats.
The circus company’s original show, the cutting-edge Absinthe, is still going strong at Caesars Palace. Recently, Spiegelworld unveiled its first foray into dinner theater: The Party, staged at Cosmopolitan’s Superfrico restaurant and featuring a three-course “American-Psychedelic dinner” paired with the troupe’s trademark shenanigans.
Focus on the Fam
Back in the day – in this case, “the day” being the 1980s – Las Vegas had exactly one attraction a responsible parent might feel comfortable exposing their children to. That was Circus Circus (2880 S. Las Vegas Blvd., circucscurcus.com) on the older north side of the Strip.
Not so today. For one, Circus Circus is showing its age and generally considered a halfway house by Vegas regulars. (And a perennial candidate for redevelopment.)
Secondly, Vegas has vastly expanded its menu of family-friendly venues and attractions over the past two decades. Some are visceral, carnival-style amusements like the Skyjump at The Strat (née Stratosphere), a colon-puckering zip line-like ride in which you jump off an 856-foot tower and enjoy a controlled descent to the ground below (2000 Las Vegas Blvd S., thestrat.com). Also in this camp, arguably: Night Tour Over The Las Vegas Strip from local aviation outfit Papillon Helicopter (papillon.com). Staged conveniently out of Harry Reid International Airport’s hassle-free charter flight campus, the 15-minute rotary-wing flight takes you on a wide, sweeping aerial tour of the city (starting at $129/person), culminating in a low-elevation Strip fly-through reminiscent of the trench run at the end of Star Wars. Pulse-racing and wholesome all at once.
Some of the city’s other kid-centric amusements are headier and more high-concept, like AREA15 (3215 Rancho Dr, 866-636-9969, area15.com), the UFO-centric experience mall set in the warehouse district west of the Strip. Packed with art installations, kooky shops and food-truck-style eats (along with several bars for the elders), the indoor campus is anchored by Omega Mart, the mind-bending faux grocery-store interactive adventure by New Mexico-based art collective Meow Wolf (meowwolf.com). It’s a trip to say the least and a great way to burn an hour or five.
AREA15 also added the John Wick Experience recently, complete with a replica of The Continental hotel lobby featured in the movie. For older kids, let’s say.
“Educational but fun” is the outcome all parents aspire to when planning family outings – and one admirably realized at the National Atomic Testing Museum (755 E Flamingo Rd., 702-409-7366, atomicmuseum.vegas), an interactive historical center that tells the story of America’s nuclear weapons testing program at the Nevada Test Site. The scale and enormity of the fission weapons detonated a mere 65 miles from Las Vegas will easily keep the young ones engaged through the first half of your roughly two-hour visit. For the other half: the museum’s special World of Fallout exhibit, running through December, dedicated to the influential video game and Amazon Prime series, with memorabilia galore.
Game On
Vegas loves a rags-to-riches story, and where pro sports is concerned, it can point to itself. Just a decade ago, the city was a sports desert, with only the minor-league baseball Las Vegas 51s in the fold. The NHL expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights (nhl.com/goldenknights) broke the major-sports seal in 2017, improbably advancing to the Stanley Cup their inaugural year. Then the city pillaged the Las Vegas Raiders (raiders.com) from downtrodden Oakland (the team debuted in Allegiant Stadium in 2020); and repeated the trick with MLB’s Oakland (now Sacramento) A’s, who are set to debut as the Las Vegas A’s in a $2 billion, 33,000-seat stadium on the old Tropicana site in 2028 (ballparkexperience.athletics.com).
Widely presumed to have the inside track on one of two NBA expansion teams penciled in for the 2028-29 season, the city will be just one of 12 in the U.S. with teams in all four major pro sports – a feat it would accomplish in unprecedented time. And that doesn’t even include the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces (aces.wnba.com), who have won three championships since relocating to Nevada in 2018.
Consequently, the city is going a little sports crazy. You can see hints of the mania in memorabilia collections like the Hall of Excellence at Fontainebleau Las Vegas (2777 S. Las Vegas Boulevard, fontainebleaulasvegas.com), a museum of sports and cultural artifacts – from Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves to Oprah Winfrey’s Presidential Medal of Freedom – curated by NFL golden boy Tom Brady and sportscaster Jim Gray.
Just as motherhood is the “world’s second oldest profession,” in the sage words of Erma Bombeck, sports wagering is predated only by sports itself – but it, too, has taken a hit in recent years alongside the blackjack and pai gow tables of Vegas, due to the rise of online wagering. One solution for casinos: Give the sports gambler a flesh-and-blood experience they can’t get on DraftKings, which is exactly what Circa Las Vegas (8 Fremont St., circalasvegas.com) has pulled off. Located in the city’s historical downtown district, Circa boasts hands-down the most gobsmacking sportsbook you’ve ever laid eyes on – a three-story, stadium-style temple of parlays and moneylines no self-respecting sports fan will want to leave. The aesthetic is repeated outside on Circa’s singular pool deck, Stadium Swim, which is similarly tiered and angled for sports viewing, with cabanas and chaise lounges facing a massive, Orwellian embankment of video screens. Like the sportsbook, it’s a showstopper – and has one of the liveliest late-afternoon party scenes you’ll find in Vegas.
Not that you need to stay on the Strip to find the strike zone as a sports fan in Vegas. About 15 miles west in the suburb of Summerlin, the city’s AAA baseball team, now known as the Las Vegas Aviators, ply their trade all summer long at Las Vegas Ballpark (1650 S. Pavilion Center Dr., mlb.com/milb/las-vegas). Regarded by many as one of the top two minor league ballparks in the U.S. Southwest (alongside Mesa’s Sloan Park), the 8,900-seat facility is baseball nostalgia made flesh, with wide, shaded concourses (vital when it’s 105 degrees F at first pitch), copious concessions and ennobling views of nearby Red Rock Canyon.
Supposedly, the Aviators will continue to play in Summerlin even after the A’s arrive – and let’s hope they do. After all, it’s all well-and-good to watch an F1 race that snakes past an NFL stadium and NHL arena, and flirts with a building pad that will be an MLB stadium soon, but sometimes you just want a hot dog and a squeeze play. And maybe a blackjack table after.
Where to Stay
Crockfords at Resorts World
Built over the bones of the old Stardust, Resorts World was the first new top-to-bottom resort to open on the Strip in 11 years when it debuted in 2021. Located mid-Strip near Wynn, the massive playground is actually a confederacy of three Hilton properties under one roof: a mainline Hilton, a luxury imprint called Conrad and, finally, this boutique property, with only five locations worldwide. In the warren of casino games and restaurants that connect the three hotels, you’ll find no shortage of amusements – from cigar-centric Eight Lounge to the Awana spa with its show-stopping serenity lounge – but it’s Resort World Live, the casino’s lively menu of music and comedy, that will reel in the discerning live entertainment fan. Summer engagements include Martin Lawrence (July 11), Howard Jones (July 26) and Everclear (August 22). Oh – and there are seven-count-‘em-seven swimming pools for pre-show lounging. 3000 S. Las Vegas Blvd., 702-676-7000, rwlasvegas.com
3 Hot Vegas Bites
Don’t gamble with your meals in Vegas – these three new restaurants are guaranteed money.
Stubborn Seed
Michelin-starred chef Jeremy Ford conducts wizardly feats of flavor concentration at the Resorts World imprint of his Miami Beach restaurant – e.g. the frostiest, tangiest oysters mignonette you’ve ever tasted. Pick from the electrifying menu like fussy shoppers, or hand yourself over to Ford’s tasting menu for a New American culinary whirlwind that starts with kampachi crudo in black garlic dashi. stubbornseed.com
Amaya Modern Mexican
No modern Vegas casino pushes the culinary envelope more confidently and creatively than the Cosmopolitan. The latest evidence: this unabashed Tulum-style repast from Michelin-starred chef Jason McLeod. Your mission is simple and clear here: Order the birria short rib, a shareable explosion of spicy, sultry flavor and tender, braised beef, served with a smooth elote purée and pickled onion. amayamexican.com
Stanton Social Italian
It can be daunting reviewing your dining options at Caesars Palace. There’s a Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen with its eerily AI-perfect Beef Wellington. There’s a Peter Luger Steak House. There are two Bobby Flay restaurants, for Pete’s sake. Truly, no Strip property is more blessed. But we’ll be daring and say none of the aforementioned will please you more than Chopped star Chris Santos’ Art Deco-inspired gastro-lounge, with its gracious squad of bourbon bros and iconic ribeye cap in a cabernet demi. Super-tight oysters, too. It’s the in-casino hideout you’ve always wanted. taogroup.com/venues/stanton-social-italian
