Stadium tours available ‘soon’
While Raiders fans will not be able to attend a home game this season, they will get to view Allegiant Stadium.
Allegiant Stadium’s website is advertising tours of the building with a sign-up list for interested parties to be alerted when the tours are made available. The website touts the tours as a way to “go behind the scenes of our world-class stadium.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis, who announced Monday that fans wouldn’t be allowed at home games because of coronavirus concerns, said the tours are still planned to occur this year and should be available “soon.” He called them a great way to get an intimate look at the new crown jewel of the Las Vegas Valley.
“It might be the better way to get to know it,” Davis said.“let them (fans) introduce themselves (to the stadium) and let the stadium introduce it to them, without it being on a game day when there are 65,000 people walking around.”
The stadium’s website gives no information on hours, cost or when the tours would kick off, but a job posting for a stadium tour guide says the tours will feature groups of up to 25 people.
The average price of an adult ticket for tours at three newer NFL stadiums — Mercedes-benz Stadium in Atlanta, US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — is around $23. Seniors, children and military are offered discounted rates at all three stadiums.
Mick Akers
seats at Allegiant Stadium to be filled for a Raiders game.
Davis has indicated in recent weeks his reluctance to tell even one season-ticket holder they can’t attend games in the inaugural season at Allegiant Stadium, let alone the 40 or so thousand that likely would have been left out in the cold in the most optimistic scenario.
He went so far as to say he would not attend games this year in solidarity with Raiders fans as Allegiant Stadium sat empty this year.
“That is absolutely the case, I will not be going to games this season at home,” Davis said. “I don’t believe I’ll be going on the road as well, we’ll see how that goes.”
Davis did say the team is looking into plans to potentially create small-scale fan tailgate parties in whichfanscanwatchthegame together in small groups.
“In our desire to keep fans engaged this season, we’ve got potential ways on game day that may include fans,” Davis said.
The Raiders’ situation is different than most teams in the NFL. This is the inaugural season in Las Vegas and the state of Nevada and season-ticket holders played a big role in helping fund construction of Allegiant Stadium.
Of the sold-out season-ticket base, each ticket buyer paid a personal seat license fee for the right to their seat over the course of the 30-year stadium lease. By league rule, the majority of that fee goes directly to the construction cost of the stadium.
For that reason, Davis maintains those fans deserve the chance to celebrate the opening of the new stadium.
With that no longer the case in 2020, Davis is opting to push the official opening to 2021.
“It would have been tough to have 65,000 fans, 20,000 fans or whatever,” Davis said. “Because if they came into the stadium and then left — and we would have fans coming in from Oakland and Los Angeles — they would be bringing it back to their home places as well. And we just didn’t feel, at this time, that would be safe.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal. com. Follow @Vinnybonsignore ontwitter.