The Incidental Tourist

[The Incidental Tourist]

Could free parking disappear from the Strip?

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Pay to play? Casinos could consider charging for parking as the Strip gets more crowded.

In August, we went to this booze fest called Beer & Barrel at Mandalay Bay Beach. It was awesome. A warm night offset by plenty of icy beer and cool cocktails, tasty food, feet in the sand, that kind of thing. But we had to get there first.

Turns out it was the same night as Ariana Grande’s concert at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, and a heavy-metal festival was going down across the street at the Las Vegas Village. It was a Saturday night, so there was plenty of normal Saturday night stuff already happening at the south Strip resort, too. My naïve first attempt to park was at the casino’s main valet on Las Vegas Boulevard—just silly. I tried the east valet in the cavernous self-park garage, only to be told by a slightly unhinged attendant that valet was full, only available for hotel guests, and that the garage might be full, too, which was hard to believe but apparently true. I hunted, gave up, couldn’t find any place to park at Luxor next door, and finally found a spot at Excalibur. Maybe all those cool drinks were extra-delicious after hiking across hot pavement to get to the beach.

I’m a longtime local, so I blame no one but myself for my parking woes. I know better, as do most Las Vegans, which is why they don’t spend as much time on the Strip as I do. (Also, it’s my job.) Convenience is key to the Vegas experience, no matter where you’re coming from. We all just assume there will be loads of free parking waiting for us at all of these gigantic casino-resorts.

And yet, more and more stuff is being built on the Strip to attract more and more people ... stuff other than hotel rooms and parking spaces. Stuff like MGM’s 20,000-seat arena behind New York-New York, which will open in the spring and could become home to Las Vegas’ first major league sports team if an NHL expansion franchise comes to town in 2017. The arena will be situated at the end of the Park, a pedestrian promenade of bars, restaurants, shops and the upcoming 5,000-seat concert venue at Monte Carlo. It’ll be very L.A. Live-ish, similar to the downtown LA complex home to the Staples Center, Microsoft Theater, Club Nokia, movie theaters, restaurants, shopping, etc.

Except for this: When you go to a big concert or a Lakers game at Staples, you pay to park. You know you’re going to pay to park.

There’s no new parking garage or lot waiting to accommodate your night at this new Las Vegas arena. The plan is to park cars at existing casino garages at New York-New York, Monte Carlo, Aria and maybe even MGM Grand. Mark Prows, senior vice president of arenas for MGM Resorts, told the Las Vegas Sun in February the company hasn’t decided whether it will charge for parking during arena events, but that it’s possible, especially in the two garages closest to the arena. (Attempts at updates from MGM reps were unsuccessful at press time.)

Considering the volume of events that will undoubtedly be planned for the arena and the new theater, and recognizing that these casino garages already fill up fast during big weekends, I’d say it’s more than possible paid parking will become a thing on the Strip. In fact, I’d say it could very well become the thing on the Strip.

Locals like me and frequent road-trippers from California might gasp, or at least cringe, at the thought of paying to park in a casino garage, but that’s because we’ve just assumed it’ll always be there. Just like we’ve all tolerated weird evolution in air travel expenses—paying to check bags and such—we can and will get used to spending a few extra bucks for Vegas parking. Remember when resort fees happened? People only complain in the beginning. Then they adapt.

Kinda makes you wonder why it hasn’t happened already, huh?

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of editor-at-large at Las Vegas Weekly magazine. ...

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