Race’s boost to economy bigger than anticipated

When Competitor Group took over this city's marathon and rebranded it the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon, the goal was to attract 25,000 runners for the first running.

The San Diego-based company saw the event -- a marathon and half-marathon -- plow past that goal, attracting nearly 28,000 runners to the Strip on Dec. 6.

So perhaps not surprisingly, the economic impact proved much greater than initially anticipated, as well.

Two days before the race, officials projected a financial boost to the region of $50 million, which included 30,000 room nights. In the event's recently released economic impact report, the total was $64.5 million.

"It's definitely a very high number, higher than some of us expected," race general manager Adam Zocks said. "We did really well with the average number of room nights (3.18). Runners stayed one more night than the average we do for most of our events.

"Fifty-five percent of our block stayed Sunday night (after the race). That's very big. The race started at 6 a.m., and people could've easily left Sunday afternoon, and they didn't."

Eighty-five percent of the field -- more than 23,500 runners -- came from outside Clark County. "It shows a lot about the draw of Las Vegas," Zocks said. "People came for the event and for the city."

• 2010 ENTRIES -- The official total of participants for 2009 was approximately 27,700, Zocks said. And while that's nearly twice as big as the Las Vegas race ever has been, the expectation is that it will be significantly larger come Dec. 5, when this year's race takes place.

Zocks is projecting growth of at least 10 percent, perhaps as much as 25 percent.

"We want to grow this event, and we feel like with the race we gave to runners, and with the word of mouth, we will grow, even if we don't make any changes," Zocks said. "It'll be 30,000 to 35,000 this year."

Runners have been able to enter online the past two months at www.las-vegas.competitor.com, and even though the numbers are modest so far -- at approximately 500 -- Zocks said that pace is double last year's at this point.

"It just shows we're starting strong," he said. "Once we get moving with the marketing and get people thinking about it again, we'll really get rolling."

Contact reporter Patrick Everson at peverson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0353.