By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
As the Las Vegas Raiders come down the home stretch of completing its $1.976 billion stadium project in Las Vegas, the NFL team will face a new challenge that might be even more difficult than building a 65,000-seat domed stadium in less than three years.
That challenge is trying to keep its players from getting infected with a novel coronavirus that forced the cancellation of two Major League Baseball games today because of a COVID-19 breakout in the Miami Marlins organization. The Marlins vs. Orioles in Miami and the Yankees vs Phillies in Philadelphia are scrubbed. The Marlins had just played a three-game series against the Phillies in Philadelphia,
Like Major League Baseball, the NFL is forging ahead with plans to have teams holding practices and games in their local markets.
That’s different than the NBA, WNBA, NHL and MLS, which moved ahead with playing games in a “bubble” host city — a game plan heavy on coronavirus protocols and very close monitoring of player movements. It includes quarantining players and team staff in hotel rooms and constant testing.
The Washington, D.C.-based NFL Players Association is keeping a very close eye on its NFL team markets for trends and cases of the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 150,000 Americans. The players’ labor union is led by its president, J.C. Tretter of the Cleveland Browns, and its executive director, DeMaurice Smith.
The NFLPA’s website has an intriguing COVID-19 case map that is updated daily. The labor union’s interactive tracking map is provided by Edgeworth Analytics.
The map is tracking each NFL metro market for the 14-day average daily cases per 100,000 residents. The map also tracks the 14-day average daily cases without a per capita or per 100,000 population analysis. And it monitors the cumulative cases per 100,000 residents in each NFL market.
As you can see, the Miami Dolphins face the most dire situation for coronavirus cases in the NFL.
But the Las Vegas Raiders and its Clark County market — based on a metric of 14-day daily average per 100,000 population — rank fourth highest with 42.68 cases per 100,000 in the NFL. You can see the virus case numbers climbed significantly in July.
That ranks behind the Dolphins (79.86 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents), the Arizona Cardinals (43.86 cases per 100,000) and the Jacksonville Jaguars ( 43.79 cases per 100,000).
The COVID-19 situation in Las Vegas was a factor in the National Hockey League not choosing Las Vegas as one of the two host cities. Instead, the NHL picked Edmonton and Toronto to be the pandemic “bubble” cities for the Western and Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Raiders will train at their new headquarters in the city of Henderson.
The Raiders have built and will operate Allegiant Stadium, the 65,000-seat venue on 62.5 acres on the west side of Interstate 15 across from Mandalay Bay. For this season, don’t expect fans at Raiders games — if the games are even played.
The coronavirus has already meant that all four NFL preseason games have been cancelled.
What will be the COVID-19 impact on the NFL season, one that is moving ahead without a “bubble” host city? Nobody knows.
Las Vegas-based UFC has relied on strict bubble protocols in Jacksonville (May 16), in Las Vegas at its UFC Apex building next to its headquarters (May 30 and through June) and in Abu Dhabi in July. UFC President Dana White said UFC will lose $100 million in gate revenue from not having fans at the fight show venues. That’s the brutal reality of staging sports during the era of COVID-19.
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram. Like LVSportsBiz.com on Facebook.