Raiders owner Mark Davis at the first Raiders game with fans at Allegiant Stadium in August 2021. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com
Allegiant Stadium COVID-19 Raiders Stadium Raiders Team Stadiums/Arenas (General) 

Raiders Owner Mark Davis Says Team’s COVID Vaccination Requirement Primary Reason Behind Empty Seats At Raiders Home Games Last Season

Alan Snel

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:

Allegiant Stadium at the end of a Raiders blowout loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Las Vegas last season. Photo credit: LVSportsBiz.com

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.

Raiders owner Mark Davis. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

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

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.

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