LAS VEGAS – With the NFL leaving individual teams and / or local city hall guidelines as to how many, if any, fans can attend the games, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis bows for not having fans attend games at Las Vegas’ new Allegiant Stadium this season.
If fans aren’t admitted, Davis said, he won’t be attending the games, either. As the lone dissenting vote on the league owners ‘recent decision to cover the first eight rows of field seats in each stadium and cover them with advertisements, Davis said the Raiders’ idea of leaving seats for fans and erecting the hockey style The plexiglass at the bottom of the stadium to separate fans from players on the sidelines was “knocked down” before the vote.
“No fan is more important to me than any other, regardless of whether they paid a $ 75,000 PSL or a $ 500 PSL,” Davis told ESPN.com on Sunday night. “They’re all Raider fans to me. My mindset isn’t fanatic today [should attend games].
“I don’t even know if it’s safe to play. ‘Uncertainty’ is the word.”
Regardless of game fans, Davis said he sees three options for the NFL right now:
1. Carry on as planned, with teams reporting to boot camp next week, and see what happens.
2. Delay the start of the season until November and move to a 12-game season, canceling each team’s four interconference games. (For the Raiders, that would mean games in the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons and home games against the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.)
3. Cancel the 2020 season entirely.
“Everything is in the air with him [COVID-19] viruses and how it will affect our league and season, “Davis said, adding that his frustration at removing the first eight rows of seats was exacerbated by the fact that the league left the decision on fans to individual teams after a low season. of what Davis called “equity” between teams.
With no off-season shows and only virtual meetings, it was based on “a worse scenario,” Davis said, so each team was in the same situation.
Since the Raiders are sold out for the season, they have no room to move fans from those lower sections.
“That’s the black hole,” said Davis. “They’re the people who want to be in the front row. Boisterous fans … now I have to tell 8,000 people who helped build this that they can’t come to a game. I don’t have 8,000 seats to move them to. We’re exhausted.
“The optics are terrible: advertising on the top of the seats belonging to people you are saying cannot come to the game. I prefer that everyone be mad at me than just one person. I have to compensate them, and I I will. It’s about security and fairness. “
The Raiders, who have called Oakland, California, since moving there in 1995 after 13 seasons in Los Angeles, are in the midst of moving to southern Nevada.
Davis said that without fans, it will be a “soft opening” for the $ 1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium near the Las Vegas Strip, with the goal of growing by 2021, in the event of the coronavirus pandemic. decrease by then.
“We want our inaugural season to be something special,” he said. “I don’t even know if we’re going to light the [Al Davis] Torch. All of these are potential and they respect everyone. “
Saying that he would stay away from the games if he decides to exclude fans from Allegiant Stadium, Davis said only people “essential to the production of the game” should attend.
“The only thing I’m essential to is after the game, yelling at Jon [Gruden]”Davis joked about the Raiders coach.” I can do it over the phone. “
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