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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
It’s hard to celebrate your home-opener of the National Football League season when the visiting team’s fans outnumber your own fans in your own building.
But the Las Vegas Raiders are used to playing in front of home crowds at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas that make more noise when the visiting team completes a long pass or snares an interception than when the Silver & Black performs a nice play.
That’s Las Vegas for you, the outlier market with the publicly-financed sleek stadium that places a higher priority on luring visitors than cultivating a home base of fans in a town filled with transients with a prior NFL team allegiances.
After a difficult 23-18 loss to Pittsburgh, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said they’ve handled home fields at Allegiant Stadium where opposing teams’ fans let their voices be heard. McDaniels is correct because you might recall it happened last season with Chiefs and 49ers fans taking over the Raiders’ home stadium.
Expect the same on October 9 when the Raiders host the Green Bay Packers, another NFL team that will have its fans fill Las Vegas’ home field of Allegiant Stadium. The Raiders are off to Los Angeles next weekend when they travel to play the Chargers.
Sure, the TV cameras will capture cameo images of the old Black Hole fans and the Raiders will roll out wonderful names of their storied past like Fred Biletnikoff and Jim Otto.
The Raiders have racked up one of the poorest records over the past two decades in the NFL, so they find solace in celebrating their past like no other franchise. This year’s team has won one of three games, with the one Raiders win over Denver by a single point two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, assuming Steelers fans stayed in Southern Nevada hotels, the visiting team’s boosters are paying a hotel room tax that is helping pay off the public debt here in metro Las Vegas on the $750 million subsidy that went toward building the domed stadium that is run by the NFL stadium.
In effect, the hotel room tax functions as an unofficial user fee when out-of-town stadium attendees stay in local lodging and pay the 88 cents per $100 spent on the hotel room that is goes toward paying off the stadium bonds’ debt.
The Raiders, with their losing ways, have become a tourist attraction — a similarity you will see when the Oakland Athletics start play in a planned new stadium on the Strip in 2028.
For now, Raiders owner Mark Davis welcomed Las Vegas celebrity/boxing great Mike Tyson to Allegiant Stadium where Tyson lit the torch in the name and memory of Davis’ father, Al, before the Raiders/Steelers home-opener.
It was halftime and the Steelers led the Raiders, 13-7, as the Las Vegas offensive line could have used Otto to limit the physical beating absorbed by the Raiders’ fragile GQ quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo. Jimmy G., as he’s called around the league, had his leg bent like a pretzel late in the long first half, but he did jog off the field to the locker room with about 30 seconds left in the second quarter. Garoppolo did start the second half.
Despite the Raiders’ struggles on the field, aAt least Raiders team President Sandra Douglass Morgan oversees a franchise valued at $6.2 billion, thanks to the league’s top ticket revenues and robust stadium revenues. She has also helped cleanup a front office personnel mess that saw several executives leave the franchise before the local, well-connected lawyer took the helm last year.
And not only does Davis have a sports franchise worth more than he ever could imagine, at least he’s enjoying his Aces’ run to the WNBA Finals. The Aces easily defeated a Dallas squad in the WNBA semis Game 1 in the Best-of-5 series.
The place erupted in the first quarter when Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett completed a 72-yard pass to receiver Calvin Austin III.
In the third quarter, the yellow towels were out again when Pickett completed another TD pass, this time to tight end Pat Freiermuth and the stadium exploded with cheers once again.
Sure, Davis is seeing his bank account expand thanks to ticket sales — it’s just that the money is coming from sources outside Las Vegas.
It was Pittsburgh 23 Las Vegas 7 late in the third quarter.
Mid-way through the fourth quarters, the loud Steelers fans chants of “Defense, defense, defense,” rang through the stadium as the Raiders tried to mount a drive.
With 5:41 left in the fourth quarter, it was Steelers 23 Raiders 15.
The Raiders punched a short field goal to chisel down the Steelers lead to 23-18 with a little more than two minutes left in the Q4.
With 12 seconds left in the game and the Raiders pinned back deep in their territory, Pittsburgh defenders waved their arms to crank up the fans’ noise.
The Steelers faithful obliged.
Garoppolo tossed his third interception of the game and the Pittsburgh franchise — and iots legion of fans — walked out of Allegiant Stadium with a 23-18 win.