Las Vegas Strip room rates plummet after NFL draft canceled
Rates for hotel rooms during the upcoming NFL draft were already sliding last week as Las Vegas and other cities shut down to contain the spreading coronavirus.
The league has now pulled the plug on the football festivities — and room prices have dropped even further as Las Vegas’ tourism industry, the backbone of the local economy, spirals into darkness.
The National Football League on Monday canceled the draft’s public events, scheduled for April 23-25 in Las Vegas, saying it will televise the player selections instead.
As seen Monday on Hotels.com, the average room rate April 23 at a dozen hotels on or near the Strip was $65. When the Review-Journal searched the site last Wednesday, the average rate April 23 at the properties was $287.
Those tallies do not include hotels run by MGM Resorts International, which said Sunday it will suspend operations at its Las Vegas properties this week and not take reservations for arrivals prior to May 1.
The NFL’s festivities were slated to include league prospects showcased on a red-carpet stage to be built over the Fountains of Bellagio, with players and their families ferried there by boat. The draft’s main stage and a free, three-day football festival would have been outside the new Caesars Forum convention center.
Room rates had skyrocketed ahead of the draft, which was expected to bring a surge of visitors to Las Vegas.
At one point in January, room rates during the football extravaganza were up an average of about 89 percent across 40 properties on or near the Strip compared with the week before, according to figures on Hotels.com.
Of course, that was before the new coronavirus upended daily life in Southern Nevada and around the U.S.
In the past few weeks, Las Vegas has seen widespread hoarding at retail stores and waves of canceled conventions, casino closures and other shutdowns as government agencies and private companies race to contain the virus.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
