LVSportsBiz Friday Roundup: COVID Causes Raiders-Browns Game To Shift From Saturday To Monday; Aces Hire New Business Execs
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Outbreaks of COVID-19 among three National Football League teams, including the Las Vegas Raiders’ next opponent, the Cleveland Browns, are playing havoc with the NFL schedule.
Saturday’s Raiders-Browns game originally scheduled for Saturday has been moved to Monday because the Cleveland team has too many players with COVID-19. The Monday Raiders game is scheduled for 2PM Las Vegas time on the NFL network.
The Seahawks-Rams and Washington-Eagles games were also moved from Sunday to Tuesday because the Rams and Washington teams also have too many players with the coronavirus, which has killed more than 800,000 Americans since March 2020.
Raiders players were not too happy about the schedule shift:
From Adam Schefter’s tweet:
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National Hockey League and COVID: Not only is the NFL dealing with COVID-related schedule changes, so is the NHL. The league released this news Friday.
Three teams — the Calgary Flames, the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers — all will have their games postponed at least through next week.
The NHL extended the period of game postponements for the Calgary Flames through their game previously scheduled for Dec. 23 against Seattle.
Plus, due to concern with the number of positive cases within the last two days as well concern for continued COVID spread in the coming days, the Colorado Avalanche’s and Florida Panthers’ games also will be postponed at least through the scheduled completion of the League’s Holiday Break in the schedule on Dec. 26. The decision was made by the NHL’s, the NHLPA’s and the Club medical groups.
So far, the Golden Knights have some a few players infected with COVID-19, but their games have not been postponed this season. The Knights play the Rangers in New York City tonight.
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Las Vegas Aces hire Jennifer Azzi and Blair Hardiek for business roles: Aces President Nikki Fargas said today the WNBA team has hired basketball legend Jennifer Azzi as the team’s chief business development officer, and Blair Hardiek as its chief marketing and communications officer.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Jennifer and Blair join the Aces’ front office staff,” Fargas said. “Jennifer has championed women’s sports her entire life. She embodies the foundation this league was built on. We believe she will carry us into a new era of revenue growth for the franchise and establishing new business development.”
As for Hardiek, Fargas said, “Blair has a passion for growth, and her experience with new audiences via emerging platforms will further strengthen the Aces’ brand. She will continue to promote the Aces’ distinct brand while driving revenue and engaging fans.”
Azzi and Hardiek are married and will be available to the media after Jan. 1.
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Henderson Silver Knights giving away free collectible coins: The VGK minor league team will be giving out “Lucky Shillings” to the first 5,000 fans to enter Orleans Arena on Wednesday when Silver Knights face off against the Ontario Reign at 7PM. The shilling was designed in-house by the Henderson Silver Knights creative team and features a horseshoe on one side, and a spur on the other. The final design was minted by the skilled craftspeople at Sunshine Minting, Inc., the giveaway sponsor.
This is the second of four coin giveaways to take place during the 2021-22 season. Fans received the first coin at Henderson’s home opener on Oct. 15. The final two coin giveaways will be announced at a later date.
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The Kentucky vs Ohio State basketball game scheduled for T-Mobile Arena on Saturday has been postponed because of COVID-19 problems in the Ohio State basketball program.
The Kentucky men’s basketball team’s previously scheduled game was part of the CBS Sports Classic, which is working with UK Athletics to find a possible replacement game to fill Saturday’s void. At the timing of this release on Thursday, UK was still scheduled to make the trip to Las Vegas in hopes of finding a game.
Pssst, Kentucky, UNLV’s men’s basketball team is off.
