One Virus, Two Teams’ Responses: Raiders/VGK Season Ticket Holder Says Yes To Raiders Games, No To Knights Games
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Joe Dias, of Las Vegas, is a season ticket holder of both the Las Vegas Raiders and the Vegas Golden Knights.
But he attends only Raiders home games at Allegiant Stadium and stays away from Golden Knights home games at T-Mobile Arena.
The reason, for Dias, is that the Raiders require all fans attending home games to show proof of vaccination, while the Golden Knights say fans at their home games need to wear a mask, which would comply with the state/county indoor mask mandate. VGK fans do not have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.
In comments to LVSportsBiz.com, Dias spelled out why he has attended both Raiders home games, but has not gone to any of the first three Golden Knights preseason games.
On the Raiders: “Raiders = Fully Vaccinated (No Masks required) Shot available at gate . . . I will go to almost every home game this year.”
On the Golden Knights: “I honestly don’t feel safe to go to a game until the Golden Knights at least make it so that a negative test is required for entry. I have seen a ton of pictures via Facebook, Twitter or even video from home games. It appears that over 60-75% of people in pictures or video are unmasked . . . I don’t plan on changing my stance as I have a 4 yr old at home.”
Dias also tweeted:
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Raiders fans do not have to wear a mask inside Allegiant Stadium after showing proof of vaccination.
Raiders owner Mark Davis said it was it was not feasible to police all the fans inside the stadium to wear a mask. The NFL team, now in its second season at Allegiant Stadium, has a screening tent in a parking lot outside the stadium to help fans with the Clear app to show their vaccination proof and to also give fans their first vaccination shots. Fans who get their first vax shots are required to wear a mask at Raiders home games.
Dias said he selling his Golden Knights season ticket for this season.
He posted his remarks on Twitter:
Another Golden Knights fan took to Twitter to offer this observation:
And a follow Tweet:
At the Golden Knights games, PA announcer Bruce Cusick does make several statements explaining to fans they need to mask up inside T-Mobile Arena. From anecdotal observations, LVSportsBiz.com saw fans both with face coverings and others without them.
LVSportsBiz.com emailed questions to the Golden Knights about their thoughts on the COVID-19 protocols for fans at VGK home games. We have not heard back. But if we do, we will include their comments.
The COVID-19 virus has claimed the lives of more than 700,000 Americans and misinformation about the vaccine prompted a Clark County Commissioner, Justin Jones, to get the county commission declare that misinformation about the coronavirus has caused a public health crisis in the county.
Not all fans of the Raiders and Golden Knights believe the COVID-19 vaccination should be mandated. For the Raiders’ season-opening win over the Baltimore Ravens at Allegiant Stadium Sept. 13, the team received requests from 700 season ticket holders representing 1,800 tickets to either get refunds or roll over their season ticket deals to 2022 in response to the vaccination requirement.
Back in June, the Golden Knights said it was OK for fans to attend playoff games if they were vaccinated against COVID but the difference between that and the Raiders policy is VGK fans did not have to show any proof of vaccination four months ago. At the time, the county said it was OK for people to not wear masks indoors if they were vaccinated (based on the honor code), but then coronavirus cases spiked in Clark County and Nevada and Gov. Steve Sisolak declared the indoor mask mandate for counties with a high rate of COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 wiped out the Las Vegas Aviators’ final two games of the season in Reno. The team released this statement via Twitter.
