By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said Thursday the team, players and the Golden Knights Foundation will pledge a minimum of $500,000 to help part-time game-day employees and T-Mobile Arena hourly on-call staff who were scheduled to work the remaining Golden Knights home games at the arena through the end of the NHL regular season.
Leading the player contributions is VGK goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who committed $100,000 after the NHL season was paused March 12 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread across the U.S. and prompted Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak this week to advise state residents to stay home and to order “non-essential” businesses to close for at least 30 days.
In a prepared statement released today, Foley was quoted, “Our foundational principles are centered on helping people in need and defending those who cannot defend themselves. Make no mistake, these are uncertain and challenging times, especially here in the great city of Las Vegas. But we are all in this together and we will all persevere together. We hope these contributions can have a positive impact on many of the staff and their families who are affected. We want to do our part.”
The money will assist arena hourly on-call staff that normally work VGK home games, including third-party vendors, service providers, food and beverage employees, retail associates, medical staff, event personnel, production and cleaning operations. Here’s one of the VGK game part-timers, DJ Joe Green:
The Golden Knights will also support all their own part-time game night employees. This includes the entire VGK Cast and Crew – including in-arena hosts, PA announcer, Vegas Vivas!, Golden Belles, Knights Guard, Knight Line, the dj, The Golden Knight, music director, camera operators, control room crew, Battle Wagon driver, Villain and Watchman. It also includes the drivers of the ice resurfacers.
Vegas Golden Knights interns who work game days across all the VGK business teams will also be assisted by these efforts. Even the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation 51/49 raffle staff will be supported as well.
“A big part of what makes the Vegas Golden Knights game day experience so memorable is the staff working behind the scenes,” Fleury was quoted in the media release.
“As players we truly appreciate all the employees who work so hard in making The Fortress the best place to play in the NHL. They are just as much a part of the Las Vegas community as we are. My family and I hope that these contributions not only help those in need, but also inspire others who are in fortunate positions to step up and find ways to help too. We can’t wait to see the employees and our fans again soon.”
The game part-timers have been worried about their income after the NHL announced the decision to pause the 2019-20 season. LVSportsBiz.com reported this topic six days ago.
The NHL’s goal is to resume play as soon as it is appropriate so that the league will be able to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup. The Vegas Golden Knights contributions will be distributed for 2019-20 regular season games not played or rescheduled.
COVID-19 cases in U.S. as of Thursday March 19: 11,532; Confirmed global cases: 191,127.
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