Fear not, Raiders fans, ‘Black Hole’ will live on in Las Vegas
Raiders fans who feared that the notorious enclave known as the “Black Hole” may not transfer to Las Vegas can take heart.
It appears that the fan-led area will make its way to Sin City after all.
The Black Hole was an area in sections 104, 105, 106 and 107 at Oakland Alameda Stadium where Raider Nation fans dressed up in intimidating costumes and were known to get raucous at times.
After renderings circulated showing a field-level club in the north end zone of Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders’ soon-to-be home, a collective gasp was heard from fans and media speculated it was the end of the “Black Hole.”
But every stadium has two end zones and the south end of the $2 billion, 65,000-seat Allegiant facility is gearing up to host the feared fan zone.
Raiders President Marc Badain noted that 40 percent of those who purchased the sold out personal seat licenses for Allegiant Stadium are from outside Nevada.
Of those, around 7,000 fans — or 13 percent of the 55,000 PSLs sold at Allegiant Stadium — owned season tickets at Oakland Alameda Coliseum.
“A lot of the folks that sit in the Black Hole in Oakland bought tickets in the south end zone at Allegiant,” Badain said. “Whether that happens organically, we’ll see what happens.”
Cisco Ortega, 49, was the vice president of the Black Hole at the group’s headquarters in Oakland and is the president of the soon-to-launch Las Vegas chapter. He said he knows of a few people from the Black Hole that will be in the south end zone, but said members also will be throughout the stadium.
“I believe there’s about eight (members in the south end zone),” Ortega said. “There will be other Black Hole members in the section over and different sections in the stadium…. I know that area (end zone) is known as the Black Hole area, but the entire coliseum in Oakland we had Black Hole members throughout that whole stadium.”
Plans are to officially launch the Las Vegas chapter with a Super Bowl bash, but those details are not yet available.
“We’ll be launching our Black Hole chapter with an official chapter party,” Ortega said. “We’re already here, we have our office.”
Las Vegas will join the approximately 30 chapters established throughout the U.S., with members also located in Mexico and Canada.
Ortega moved to Las Vegas last year with his company, which by luck was perfectly timed for the Raiders’ move.
Ortega himself doesn’t yet have season tickets for Allegiant Stadium, but said he’d be looking to buy them sometime in the future.
Ortega said the fan club chapters are active in the community, including toy drives for Christmas, feeding the homeless and other civic activities.
“We are more than just fun stuff,” he said. “We make ourselves known in the community.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.