Raiders vaccine requirement not impacting secondary ticket market

Despite causing a stir with some fans, the Raiders’ decision to allow only vaccinated fans to attend the team’s home games at Allegiant Stadium hasn’t appeared to impact the secondary ticket market.

The Raiders announced on Monday that fans would be required to show proof of vaccination to attend games this season. Fully vaccinated fans won’t have to wear masks, while partially vaccinated fans and children between two and 11, who aren’t eligible to be vaccinated, will be admitted and have to wear a face covering.

Season ticket holders who don’t wish to receive the vaccine are able to request refunds or roll this year’s ticket dues to next year.

However, fans who have already sold any of their tickets for this season aren’t eligible for the refund or rollover offer.

“They will not be getting refunds because they will not be giving back the full season ticker package,” Raiders owner Mark Davis said during a news conference Tuesday. “People that have sold tickets to the Monday Night game (Sept. 13) coming up and made whatever (profit) they did, for reasons they did, they will not be getting a refund or rollover.”

That stipulation had many believing there would be an influx of Raiders home game tickets flooding the market, as Raiders games at Allegiant Stadium are the hottest tickets on the resale market.

Ticketmaster’s NFL Ticket Exchange serves as the official marketplace for NFL fans to sell their tickets to other fans. Representatives with Ticketmaster said it’s business as usual for Raiders tickets.

“There has been strong demand from fans around the world looking to attend Raiders games in Las Vegas,” a statement from the company read. “We haven’t seen any change in the resale volume since the announcement on vaccination protocols”

Tickets for the Raiders regular season opener, a Monday Night Football matchup with Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, start at $392 on the NFL Ticket Exchange.

Secondary ticket market giant StubHub said although it has recently seen an increase of Raiders tickets on its platform, that trend was occurring before the Raiders made the vaccine requirement announcement.

“StubHub saw an increase in the amount of tickets available for the Raiders since Monday’s announcement,” a statement from StubHub read. “However, we can’t directly attribute this trend to the vaccine requirement as we also saw Raiders ticket listings increase during the previous week and the weeks beforehand.”

As of Wednesday morning there were 2,227 tickets for the Raiders-Ravens game on StubHub, with the lowest advertised price of $454. Wednesday’s number is actually lower than what was listed Tuesday morning as there were 2,262 tickets for the Monday Night Football showdown on StubHub, with the same price listed for the cheapest ticket.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.