Raiders Owner Mark Davis Says Team’s COVID Vaccination Requirement Primary Reason Behind Empty Seats At Raiders Home Games Last Season
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis said his COVID-19 vaccination requirement for fans to attend Raiders home games was the primary reason why there were so many people who bought tickets to games at Allegiant Stadium but did not attend those events, creating a high no-show rate.
Allegiant Stadium event attendance records filed with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority showed that the actual attendance at Raiders games in October, November and December was in the 50,000-55,000 range at the 65,000-fan domed venue in Las Vegas. There were literally thousands of empty seats at Raiders home games even though those seats were purchased. Here were the turnstile counts for Raiders home games in the 4Q of 2021:
LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Davis before Tuesday’s Las Vegas Aces-Connecticut Sun WNBA game at Mandalay Bay about the no-show rate at Raiders games.
Davis enacted the vax requirement for Raiders home games in 2021 because he said at the vax policy presser in August 2021 that it was not realistic to enforce the then-indoor mask requirement at the stadium.
Davis also acknowledged another reason behind all the no-shows and empty seats. He noted some fans bought Raiders game tickets to resell them at hefty prices in hopes of making a big profit, but ended up eating the tickets when they could not get buyers. The Sports Business Journal said the no-show rate was 14.3 percent at Raiders home games last season.
The Raiders were the first team in the NFL to require all people attending home games to show proof of vaccination in 2021 after no fans were allowed in the building in 2020.
It should be noted that last September the Raiders said about 700 season ticket holders representing 1,800 tickets told the NFL team they wanted a refund or advised the team to roll over their season tickets to the 2022 season and add a year to the back end of the season ticket deal.
PSA
