Renewed Ritual: Raiders Back Home For First Preseason Game At Allegiant Stadium Sunday; Raiders 26 Vikings 20
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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
First home preseason game. First parking lot space (in the corner). First fan.
It’s parking lot Jack.
“Welcome back,” Jacks told me, offering a bottle of water.
Jack then showed off the tattoos, including the one depicting the late John Madden.
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We wrote about Raiders/Aces owner Mark Davis having a doubleheader today, with his Aces playing the Seattle Storm at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena at 12 noon and his Raiders hosting the Vikings across I-15 at Allegiant Stadium.
While Raiders players warmed up two hours before playing Minnesota, Davis was chatting with Aces play-by-play radio broadcaster T.C. Martin, who snapped this selfie around 11:40 AM.
Both places hosting home games for teams owned by Davis.
The Aces ended up defeating Seattle, 109-100, and finished the regular season with a 26-10 record, good for the top playoff seed in the WNBA.
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Security warned fans that all footballs need to be in boxes if they’re going to be signed. That was the message being conveyed here.
And that football was eventually signed.
People were looking for autographs on all kinds of items like this photo:
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The grass field that was rolled into Allegiant Stadium was looking rather parched.
It’s not exactly in mid-season form.
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There were lots of open seats during the game and if I had to eyeball an estimate I’d say there’s 40,000 in the domed football stadium.
It was mostly second- and third-stringers for both teams. But seeing the Raiders and Vikings on the field brought back memories of Super Bowl 11 in January 1977 when the Raiders won their first Super Bowl.
The Raiders led, 10-6, at the half behind backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, who was 10 of 15 and ran for the game’s only touchdown in the first 30 minutes.
The Raiders’ number one topic of discussion, the offensive line, did not exactly shine in the first half.
In the second half, Nick Mullens took over for Stidham as QB and he led the Raiders on a scoring march as the Raiders led 16-6 in the third quarter.
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By the fourth quarter, after the Vikings scored and cut the lead to 16-13, the Raiders responded with a TD of their own and led, 23-13.
The Raiders wrapped up the 26-20 win — opening the preseason with two consecutive wins.
Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said he was “blessed” to be in the position of coaching this team and said it was the best atmosphere for a preseason game that he has been a part of.
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That’s the 60th anniversary reunion of the Raiders cheerleaders known as the Raiderettes. That’s a lot of cheerleaders on one field.
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The Raiders reported their official attendance as 61,177, but with so many empty seats in the stadium that must be the tickets distributed and not the day’s turnstile count.
