Business Investment: Raiders Open Allegiant Stadium To Fans For Free, Might Just Convert Kids Into Silver & Black Fans For Life


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   Story by Alan Snel           Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

By ten minutes of eight o’clock the security guys in the orange tennis shirts were on the Raiders practice field inside Allegiant Stadium and most of the 20,000 or so Silver & Black fans were leaving the domed NFL stadium on the west side of I-25 across from Mandalay Bay.

It was the second and final Raiders practice for fans in the venue that gave many a chance to see quarterbacks Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell toss the football to receivers and hear coach Antonio Pierce release his now-expected “Rayyyyyyyy-derssssssssss” scream.

Coach Antonio Pierson

It’s a good marketing ploy to allow the locals to get a taste of a NFL stadium that might be beyond their price point to visit for an actual Raiders game.

The team’s video folks were capturing terrific images throughout the 6 PM practice, while concessions stands were open for beers, nachos an hot dogs.

The Raiders host the San Francisco 49ers Friday at 7 PM at Allegiant Stadium, with the former Oakland franchise expecting to play backups throughout the exhibition game in three days.

Many families with little kids attended the practice, a great opportunity for the Raiders to indoctrinate the little ones with the mystique of the Silver & Black brand.

The Raiders tickets are the most expensive in the National Football League, so these two freebie practices might be the sole chances for families of modest incomes to soak up the atmosphere of a stadium that was subsidized by Southern Nevada to the tune of $750 million.

LVSportsBiz.com returns to Allegiant Stadium Friday for the Raiders-49ers game. See you then.


 

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.