Downtown Las Vegas Events Center Pivots to Parking Lot (Mostly)
A longtime live entertainment and event space, the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center (DLVEC), is facing big changes some would describe as “shutting down,” but with an asterisk.
The venue will be used mostly as a parking lot moving forward, with the potential for occasional events in the future.
Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, owned by Derek and Greg Stevens (who also own The D, Golden Gate and Circa), has been operating since Sep. 2014.
Reps for DLVEC insist the changes are more of an evolution of the venue, not a closure.
The entertainment and event landscape is changing in Las Vegas, and margins are tighter than ever, making profitability a challenge.
Looking ahead, any events booked at DLVEC will need to be “bigger and better,” with promoters needing to pony up more for event infrastructure.
The Downtown Las Vegas Events Center is located at 200 S. 3rd Street, a block south of Fremont Street Experience.
Since opening in 2014, built on the site of the former Clark County Courthouse, the venue has hosted concerts, music festivals, sports watch parties and other large-scale events. The capacity of the space can be up to 20,000 people.
We’re told there have been discussions about whether the name of the venue will change given the shift in use. Downtown Las Vegas Parking Lot doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, honestly.
There are currently only three events scheduled for DLVEC: two in February, one in April. By comparison, the venue hosted more than 100 events in 2025.
Can any big picture conclusions be drawn from the changes at Downtown Las Vegas Events Center? Probably not.
It’s a simple business decision based upon market conditions, but unrelated to the dip in visitation and the like, per our contacts.
Promoters are notoriously difficult to work with, and we’ve heard DLVEC is often put in the position of footing the bill for much of the cost of producing events, costs that should rightly fall to the promoters. Things like security, medical services, insurance, point-of-sale systems and sanitation (restrooms) aren’t cheap.
DLVEC often gets the revenue generated by beverage sales, but that doesn’t equate to making a profit for many events.
In the parlance of the industry, hosting concerts and other live events can be a pain in the ass.
Many promoters or organizers do business mainly with cash and handshakes. Mostly handshakes. They often make promises that aren’t kept, and good luck chasing down money that’s owed.
The Stevens and their team have a lot going on. DLVEC existed before their baby, Circa Las Vegas, did.
The original goal of the event center was to just make sure people knew where to exit the freeway to get downtown. No, really.
Now, it feels like DLVEC is taking up precious bandwidth that could be better used to promote Circa, The D and Golden Gate.
We’re curious to see what, if any, events are hosted by the venue down the road. DLVEC isn’t going to decline big corporate events or buyouts, but that’s a far cry from the venue’s past programming.
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