By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
The Raiders stadium is still more than a year away from opening, yet its skeleton frame of 300-ton roof trusses is taking shape on the west side of Interstate 15 across from Mandalay Bay and it loomed a few football fields away from a makeshift pit stop Friday around 12:30 p.m. for a 100 or so Special Olympics torch-carrying runners.
It was a pleasant media community event for the NFL team that is moving from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020 and is walking a PR tightrope of planting roots in Las Vegas while also preparing for an upcoming season in a whole different market where its fans are fervent and loyal. The Raiders will play their final season at the Coliseum in Oakland in 2019, then move to the $1.8 billion publicly-subsidized stadium in 2020 and plant their flag in the ground at headquarters/training center in Henderson near the Henderson executive airport.
The stadium site near the corner of Russell Road and Polaris Avenue, a 15-minute walk from the Strip, made for a feel-good backdrop for the Special Olympics runners who began their day at the Hoover Dam in Boulder and hoofed it to the pit stop, where they picked up Raiders swag like ball caps and lanyards.
For these community PR events, the Raiders like to roll out their array of colorful alums, sometimes including a few local ex-Raiders here in Las Vegas. For Friday’s torch run event, there was former Raiders linebacker Jerry Robinson (1985-92), a former UCLA All-American who used to live in Spanish Trail off Tropicana Avenue from 1990-95 and was flown in from Santa Rosa, California for the runner event. Former Raiders offensive lineman Steve Wisniewski was also on hand.
The 62-year-old Robinson said he’s “not amazed, not surprised” that Raiders fans have remained so loyal through the past few years as the team has struggled in the standings.
“Raider Nation runs deep. It’s like the Mob. You can’t get out,” Robinson said with a laugh. He expects a big chunk of the fans at Raiders games in Las Vegas to be out-of-towners — and the Raiders agree, anticipating that visitors will include 20,000-25,000 of the 65,000 fans at the games who will walk from the Strip via Hacienda Avenue spanning I-15 to reach the domed venue.
“There’s a lot of things to do in Vegas. Everything is big in Vegas,” Robinson said. “Look out Jerry Jones.”
The Raiders already have dozens of ticket workers, stadium construction staff and community outreach employees on the ground here in Las Vegas. Terrence Thornton, executive director of Special Olympics Nevada, said he reached out to Raiders community relations/marketing staffer Rosie Bone about having the Special Olympics’ 200 runners make a stop at the Raiders stadium site. Bone is also a Nevada advisory board member for the Special Olympics, Thornton noted.
The Special Olympics sports programs include flag football and the Raiders were a good fit to host the runner stop, Thornton said.
The next stadium authority meeting on the Raiders stadium is Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Clark County Commission chambers.
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