LAS VEGAS– With the NFL leaving it approximately private teams and/or local municipality guidelines regarding how many, if any, fans can attend video games, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis is favoring not having any fans attend games at Las Vegas new Allegiant Stadium this season.
If no fans are admitted, Davis stated, he will not go to video games, either. As the only dissenting vote on the league owners current decision to tarp off the very first 8 rows of seats from the field in each stadium and cover them with advertisements, Davis said the Raiders concept of leaving the seats for fans and putting up hockey-style plexiglass around the bottom of the stadium to different fans from players on the sidelines was “shot down” prior to the vote.
” No one fan is more crucial to me than another, no matter if they spent for a $75,000 PSL or a $500 PSL,” Davis told ESPN.com Sunday night. “Theyre all Raider fans to me. My frame of mind today is no fans [need to go to games]
” I dont even know if its safe to play. Uncertainty is the word.”
1 RelatedRegardless of fans at games, Davis said he sees three options for the NFL at the moment:
1. Go on as planned, with groups reporting for training school over the next week, and see what occurs.
2. Postpone the start of the season till November and go to a 12-game season, cancelling each groups four interconference video games. (For the Raiders, that would mean video games at the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons and house video games against the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.).
3. Cancel the 2020 season totally.
” Everything is up in the air with the [COVID-19] virus and how it will impact our league and season,” Davis stated, adding that his aggravation about taking away the very first eight rows of seats was exacerbated by the leagues leaving the decision on fans to the individual groups after an offseason of what Davis called “equity” among groups.
Having no offseason programs and just virtual meetings was based upon “a worse-case scenario,” Davis stated, so every team was in the same scenario.
With the Raiders having offered out for the season, they have no room to move fans from those bottom areas.
” Thats the Black Hole,” Davis said. Boisterous fans … now Ive got to tell 8,000 people that assisted develop this thing that they cant come to a video game?
” The optics are horrible: marketing on top of seats coming from people youre informing they cant concern the video game. I d rather have everyone pissed at me than simply a single person. Ive got to make it approximately them, and I will. This is everything about safety and equity.”.
The Raiders, who called Oakland, California, home because moving back there in 1995 after 13 seasons in Los Angeles, remain in the midst of their relocate to Southern Nevada.
Davis said with no fans, it will be a “soft opening” for the groups $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium near the Las Vegas Strip, with an eye on going larger in 2021, need to the coronavirus pandemic subside by then.
” We want our inaugural season to be something unique,” he said. “I do not even know if well light the [Al Davis] torch. These are all capacities and respecting all.”.
In stating that he would remain away from games if he decides to exclude fans from Allegiant Stadium, Davis said only individuals “important to the production of the video game” ought to remain in participation.
” The only thing Im necessary for wants the video game, chewing out Jon [Gruden],” Davis joked of the Raiders coach. “I can do that over the phone.”.
” No one fan is more important to me than another, no matter if they paid for a $75,000 PSL or a $500 PSL,” Davis informed ESPN.com Sunday night. “Theyre all Raider fans to me. Delay the start of the season up until November and go to a 12-game season, cancelling each teams 4 interconference video games. (For the Raiders, that would imply video games at the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons and house games against the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.).
Lively fans … now Ive got to tell 8,000 individuals that assisted develop this thing that they cant come to a video game?
