By Alan Baldwin

May 1 (Reuters) - Miami Grand Prix President Tyler Epp speaks with the enthusiasm of a convert as the circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium prepares to host a Formula One sprint race for the second year in a row this weekend.

Last season he had some doubts about the format, with its sole practice session ahead of sprint qualifying and a 100km race paying out points on Saturday followed by the main attraction on Sunday.

"I couldn't have been more wrong," he told Reuters. "$(CEO)$ Tom (Garfinkel) was absolutely right and the rest of the team here was right.

"I wasn't sure it was going to be additive to what we were doing. I was very comfortable with the power of qualifying on Saturday and the traditional way that Formula One operates. But it has been a real positive for us.

"We've seen a differentiated experience on Friday, Saturday and Sunday now really being meaningful to our fans. We're proud and excited to host a sprint race again."

The race debuted in 2022 on a 10-year deal and has become a hot ticket -- literally, given track temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius last year -- with strong local support and celebrity guests.

Last year's attendance for the first of three U.S. rounds on the calendar was officially a 275,000-strong sellout, up from 270,000 in 2023 and 230,000 the year before.

Epp said this year's sales remained strong, despite fears some fans could be reining in spending and limiting travelling at a time of economic and political turbulence.

"There is a portion of our audience that is very domestic, but we are still drawing really aggressively from Latin America, from South America, from Canada, and even a bit from the Middle East and the UK," he said.

Canada has a race in Montreal in June, although that will be brought forward to May next year and likely paired with Miami.

Epp said Miami was "pretty committed" to early May, after the tennis and before the hot summer and European swing of races.

"We've had lengthy discussions with both the (governing) FIA and Formula One about where we can move and what we want to do," he added.

"We do like our position as the first American race. I think it seems to work well with how F1 is building out that calendar, coming from the East to the Middle East and then over to America for a stint."

Epp said switching to a night race had been discussed but there were no plans for that "any time in the near future".

The annual schedule of events in and around the Hard Rock complex reads like an alphabet soup of sporting bodies and championships.

Home of the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise and Miami Hurricanes in college football, the complex also hosts the Miami Open tennis and concerts. Soccer's FIFA Club World Cup is up next month, before the main World Cup in 2026.

"We're in a unique position for next year where we have the opportunity to work with the NFL, the ATP, the WTA, F1, and FIFA, all within a six-month period," said Epp.

"Heading into 2025, 2026 we'll do more events outside of the stadium than we'll actually do inside."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ken Ferris)

((alan.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; +442075427933;))