Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis recently announced that the team will not have fans at their brand-new Allegiant Stadium during the 2020 regular-season, regardless of what local or national authorities decide to allow.
The move does not come as much of a surprise considering the state of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States, although it is unfortunate considering this season will be the first time the Raiders open up their new home in their new city.
David has maintained all along though that he didn’t anticipate fans being in attendance, and he also said that he likely won’t attend games either for safety purposes.
According to Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, fans will still have an opportunity to see the new stadium though as the Raiders are organizing group tours:
Allegiant Stadium’s website is advertising tours of the building with a sign-up list for interested parties to be alerted when the tours are made available. The website touts the tours as a way to “go behind the scenes of our world-class stadium.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis, who announced Monday that fans wouldn’t be allowed at home games because of coronavirus concerns, said the tours are still planned to occur this year and should be available “soon.” He called them a great way to get an intimate look at the new crown jewel of the Las Vegas Valley.
“It might be the better way to get to know it,” Davis said.“Let them (fans) introduce themselves (to the stadium) and let the stadium introduce it to them, without it being on a game day when there are 65,000 people walking around.”
Davis added that will be a better opportunity for fans to actually see everything Allegiant Stadium has to offer instead of it being filled with thousands of people:
“You can do it in a more relaxed way and actually take the time to look at all the different features put into the stadium,” Davis said.
There isn’t yet information on how to sign up for a tour or how much it will cost, although that likely will be coming in the next few weeks.
The Raiders and the city of Las Vegas pulled out all the stops in making Allegiant Stadium one of the nicest venues in the world, so it is good to see fans will be able to check it out sometime this year even if they can’t attend games.
