VGK Owner Foley Says Having 10 Percent Of Fan Capacity At Knights Games At T-Mobile Arena Is ‘Not Enough’
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and other NHL owners are nervous.
Without NHL arenas filled with fans, a lot of teams are not going to be financially viable.
That’s the fact of life when half your team’s revenue is based on ticket income.
Foley spoke with Brian Blessing on KSHP this week and delivered the sobering news, “If we aren’t playing in front of fans, a lot of teams can’t make it. That’s including us, to make a serious financial commitment to fund the team without playing in front of fans.”
Las Vegas Motor Speedway received permission from the state and Gov. Steve Sisolak to have 10 percent of fan attendance capacity for the NHRA drag races at The Strip at the Speedway’s sprawling grounds Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
UNLV Athletics officials are also seeking state approval to use 10 percent of Allegiant Stadium’s 65,000 seats — or 6,500 seats — for a UNLV vs. University of Nevada, Reno football game Oct. 31.
But using 10 percent of T-Mobile Arena for home Vegas Golden Knights games — 1,800 seats out of the 18,000-seat venue — will not be viable, Foley told Blessing.
“We need to get up to 40 or 50 percent attendance, and then we can come up with some kind of program where every other game you can go to, that sort of thing. But with 1,800 people in the arena? That’s not enough,” Foley said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded the National Hockey League in March, the Golden Knights were having another banner year with attendance. The Knights were averaging 18,310 announced attendance, or 105.4 percent of capacity at T-Mobile Arena.
Foley believes there will be an accelerated season of 56 games starting about Feb. 1. He noted there would be four games a week and back-to-back contests, which is why he wanted to keep both VGK goalies, Robin Lehner and Marc-Andre Fleury, at a total salary cap hit of $12 million ($5 million for Lehner and $7 million for Fleury.)
“I think everyone is very nervous. I think we all thought we’d be working our way out of COVID by now and have fans in the arena. We have to see what we accomplish with 40 percent or 50 percent of fans.” Foley said on KSHP. “Can we get that many people into the arena and have it be done safely? Can they all be tested with a nasal swab the day of the game? Right now in Vegas, you can have 10% of your capacity.”
Foley also mentioned that the NHL might have an all-Canadian division because the U.S.-Canada border is not open, with the novel coronavirus claiming the lives of more than 215,000 Americans.
