UPDATE: Golden Knights President Says VGK Will Submit Plans Hoping To Have Fans Beginning March 1
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights plan on submitting a COVID-19 plan in hopes of having fans in T-Mobile Arena beginning on March 1.
“Per the governor’s most recent directive, we can submit plans on Monday for 20 percent capacity in large venues. We intend to do that with hope of having fans beginning on March 1st,” VGK President Kerry Bubolz told LVSportsBiz.com Sunday morning. The Golden Knights will also be submitting a COVID-19 fan proposal to have fans at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for Henderson Silver Knights home games starting in March, too, Bubloz said.
Indeed, Gov. Steve Sisolak last week loosened COVID-19 pandemic restrictions to have large gathering events that would allow 20 percent of capacity of large venues to be deployed. The Knights consider T-Mobile Arena’s hockey capacity at 17,367, so 20 percent of that number would be 3,473 fans.
Updated Tuesday evening: More and more NHL teams are getting permission from their local local health and state authorities to open their arenas to limited capacities of fans as novel coronavirus rates decrease. It began with three (Dallas, Florida, Arizona). Then Nashville and St. Louis joined. Two more NHL arenas opened to make it seven. And the New York teams are planning to have 10 percent capacity starting Feb. 23. And the Pittsburgh Penguins are also requesting to have their arena open for 25 percent of capacity
Getting fans back to NHL arenas is important for monthly revenue reports. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said about half of all team revenues are tied to game-day revenue streams like ticket sales, licensed merchandise and food/beverages.
The Golden Knights plan to submit a large gathering event proposal to local health and state officials showing how the team would logistically handle the admission and flow of these fans inside the venue in light of a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed 484,000 Americans.
Temperature checks would likely be part of any plan, along with social distance spacing and mask requirements around the arena tucked between the NY-NY and Park MGM hotel-casinos and parking garages.
Vegas Golden Knights majority owner Bill Foley is a stickler for revenue trends and knows exactly how much fans are spending per head inside T-Mobile Arena. Foley has a 15 percent share in T-Mobile Arena, with Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts International and Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG, owner of the LA Kings).
The National Hockey League business model is very different than the NFL’s. The NFL enjoys billions of dollars in national TV broadcast rights contracts with NBC, CBS, FOX and ESON, while the NHL’s team rely on much less lucrative regional broadcast rights deals. The NHL’s arenas are typically filled, but its national TV ratings are a fraction of those of the NFL’s.
Golden Knights fans spend a lot on licensed logo gear and food/beverage items. According to Team Marketing Report, which monitors the costs of attending major league games, the Knights’ average ticket of $104.36 ranked fourth highest in the NHL for 2019-20.
Foley, who also owns the newly re-branded Henderson Silver Knights team of the American Hockey League, can also apply to have fans at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Orleans Arena is the temporary home of the Silver Knights, which will play their games at the $84 million Henderson Event Center when that 6,000-seat arena is built at the site of the Henderson Pavilion.
The Orleans Arena capacity for hockey is about 7.700, so 20 percent of that would be 1,540. The VGK business staff says that the Silver Knights ticket prices will be an affordable alternative to local hockey fans, some of whom find the VGK prices to expensive to afford.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway has submitted a large gathering event proposal in hopes of having more than 10,000 NASCAR fans at the March 5-7 NASCAR weekend event.
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The only event at Allegiant Stadium that had fans was two UNLV football games, including a Halloween game between the Rebels and UNR. Local and state officials limited UNLV to have only three percent of capacity at Allegiant Stadium, or 2,000 fans for each of the two games. The Raiders had no fans at their eight home games because owner Mark Davis said if all fans can’t attend then no fans will attend.
Likewise for UFC President Dana White, who said no fans at UFC fight shows after March 1 until he can sell out the arena.
The Golden Knights have home games against the Minnesota Wild March 1 and 3; the San Jose Sharks March 15 and 17; St. Louis Blues March 22 and LA Kings March 29 and 31.
Don’t be surprised if fans are back in the building next month. The Golden Knights already have their in-game entertainment crew warmed up, from the Drumbots, the knight character played by Lee Orchard and arena emcees Mark Shunock and Katie Marie Jones to anthem singer Carnell “Golden Pipes” Johnson, the Chance mascot character played by Clint McComb, the cheerleaders and the Las Vegas showgirls.
