It's no news flash that the Strip is getting more expensive. Entertainment and sports in the resort corridor are no exception.
But how does this impact locals wanting to see concerts, Absinthe, or Golden Knights games? Are they biting the bullet so as not to miss out, or are they reconsidering what they attend?
And are locals' discounts — of which there are several this summer — enough to counterbalance the notion that events on or near the Strip are too pricey for Las Vegans?
In a special episode of State of Nevada done in collaboration with Vegas PBS, local experts addressed the cost of ticket events for locals from a variety of viewpoints.
It's one part of a larger issue Las Vegas Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis calls "the gouge," and his subscribers and website visitors are increasingly angry about it.
"They're talking really about the Strip casinos... having their hand in your pocket for elevated prices and fees," said Curtis. "What they hate most is the fees, whether it be resort fees, parking — you know, [paying] extra for a good seat in a restaurant, on and on and on. They just keep inventing them."
This overlaps not only with all the costs that factor into a night out on the Strip, but also with the national sentiment over ticket handling, service, and/or "convenience" fees that drive the total cost up — on average, by 27 percent.
However, Las Vegas Review-Journal entertainment reporter John Katsilometes suggests there are two forces to blame when it comes to concerts and resident performers: the act and the market.
"The artists, at the end of this, set those prices," said Katsilometes. "They know the market value, and they know what they can get for a ticket and get away with, and the ticket market and the prices respond accordingly."
The market, of course, is driven by demand, which is partly why Las Vegas typically ranks in the top, if not at the top, of rankings for ticket costs. Touring acts like Beyonce priced their Vegas stops higher than any of their other dates. And then there are performers like Bruno Mars whose current shows are exclusive to Las Vegas.
“There's a higher concentration of shows, so there's more competition for the dollar,” said Katsilometes. “What separates us in terms of price points is we have a lot of high-end ticket prices because we have a lot of in-demand resident entertainers -- not just touring shows, but resident entertainers.”
It’s no secret that tourists drive the demand and market. This is the case for all types of entertainment, including -- and increasingly -- sports.
“Las Vegas is a very unique outlier market,” said Alan Snel, publisher for LVSportsBiz. “Typically, you don't have those kind of prices in smaller markets, but we do here because we have this magic 40-million tourist number that is very alluring and enticing to the sports teams and the sports promoters, and they jack up the prices based on the fact that they feel they can make a lot of money -- not so much on locals, but on sports tourists.”
Snel has previously reported that both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Raiders claim some of the most expensive average ticket prices in their respective leagues. And then there’s Formula 1, which has become the local whipping boy for expensive sporting events. Snel also reported that the inaugural 2023 edition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix boasted the highest average ticket prices of any F1 race.
“And they took a big hit in year one for several reasons, but the cost of the ticket was astronomical,” said Snel. “It was really beyond the realistic reach of a local, so they learned their lesson. They tried to lower the price in 2024, and [was] actually a pretty good deal compared to what they were floating back in year one.”
If the market is partially to blame, where is the market correction? For folks who travel to Vegas, they’re not necessarily buying fewer concert or sporting tickets -- there’s just fewer of them coming to Las Vegas, given the steady decrease of visitation numbers through most of 2025. It’s much harder to gauge whether locals are buying fewer tickets.
However, the increasingly loud drum beat of locals’ discontent over growing costs on the Strip has resulted in a slew of discounts for specific shows and expenses related to Strip visits.
“Things have been kind of drastically down the last couple of months, so we're seeing more reaching out to the locals,” says Curtis, whose site tracks deals and discounts on the Strip and beyond. “You do see the one thing they do, universally, almost to bring the locals in, is at least three hours grace in parking. The locals, paying [for] parking? Forget it, they're not going to do it. So that is a nod to the locals at the casino saying, ‘OK, three hours for you,’ which gives you time to either play or eat or, if you want to see a show, you can just make it under that.
For sporting events, Snel points to the Las Vegas Aces and UNLV’s football team as the best deals for sports played on or around the Strip -- especially if locals can get around paid parking. In general, he (and Curtis) both stress that for locals to save money on entertainment, they must be better consumers, especially when both the market and the ticket price-setters favor the willing wallets of tourists.
“You're going to have to have locals be more aggressive in seeking deals,” said Snel. “The bottom line is, tourism drives the train here.”
