Joe Kinsey
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The Las Vegas Raiders opened Allegiant Stadium Monday night and that officially started the clock on losses that will pile up as Mark Davis’ team plays in front of empty seats thanks to coronavirus. How bad could it get financially for the Raiders? Forbes, citing a Ticket IQ report, set the number at $571 million if fans don’t walk through the gates this season.
Keep in mind, the Raiders decided back in early August that they won’t allow fans inside the new stadium for the entire season. Unless something changes fast, the Raiders will 100% be looking at massive losses, whether the realized number hits $571 million or $400 million.
Meanwhile, sponsors like MGM are left doing whatever they can to make money off the Raiders being in town. The Raiders are playing in town, but fans are left doing what they used to do. “We get rights to use the Raiders mark so we can do pre and postgame parties for fans before and after games,” MGM executive Lance Evans said. ”Then we get to associate with marketing collateral with signage in the stadium. We brand a club in the stadium that our customers can go and enjoy.”
Mark Davis has said he won’t attend a Raiders game as long as fans aren’t allowed inside. He made good on his promise Monday night, instead hosting a party at his house to watch the game on TV and raise money for charity.
Raiders gotta Raider.
Governor ain’t letting this one go. It’s gonna be masks and no fans through Christmas!
Such posturing will likely not save one life…but may well doom the Raiders’ Vegas experiment. Habits (i.e. watching games at home or in casinos) will be hard to break.
Financial black hole 🤪
If you’re like me and find sport league business strangely interesting, I found this article from last year. It gives a good summary of each NFL revenue stream financial analysts are aware of. It’s apparently difficult to know the precise finances because only the Packers are public (Even then we probably don’t see everything clearly). The rest of the NFL teams are private, and we can’t see their balance sheets.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/062515/how-nfl-makes-money.asp
The Raiders can survive a year of this, due to the massive TV deal money the NFL relies on and distributes. The biggest concern may be about the impact no fans has on the local economies and jobs. These monolith franchises run by billionaires will be fine, the NFL is just a hobby for these owners in most cases, but the employees outside of front office and players are being crushed. They’re the quiet story here in the background really needing attention.
Good article!