Allegiant Stadium a go-to destination for visiting fans

One of the bigger gripes about the Raiders’ first season with fans allowed in Allegiant Stadium was the number of opposing fans in the stands.

Depending on the opponent, there were noticeable pockets of non-Silver and Black wearing fans at each game. The majority flocked to the east side of the stadium behind the visiting team’s bench.

The corner area of the lower concourse where the visiting teams come out of the locker room on the east side of Wynn Field Club and the end zone club itself became popular areas for visiting fans.

After each game there would be several social media posts noting the presence of non-Raiders fans.

The highest number of opposing team fans who attended a Raiders home game at Allegiant Stadium last season was 33 percent, according to the Raiders. And with Las Vegas being a destination city and the stadium being just two years old, that trend is expected to continue.

“I think we will always have a large number of visiting fans at Raiders games,” said Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft. “That’s just the makeup of what makes having professional sports in Las Vegas so exciting.”

Notorious Raider fan Mark Acasio, better known as Gorilla Rilla, also said he expects opposing fans to show up in force, noting Las Vegas is an attractive party destination.

That said, he expects Raiders fans in attendance to up the ante and drown out opposing fans when needed.

“Watch out this year. We need to get louder,” said Acasio, who hasn’t missed a Raiders’ home game since 1995 and was a fixture in the Black Hole, the team’s notorious fan section in Oakland.

“A lot of people said the other fans were telling them to sit down and that you can’t stand up. … Wait a minute, man, we don’t sit down. We stand for four quarters,” Acasio said.

He reminded fans that they need to be as loud as possible, except when the Raiders are in a huddle on offense. The latter was an issue early in the Raiders’ maiden Las Vegas season.

Many Raiders fans do travel to Las Vegas from Southern and Northern California for games. No-fee secondary ticket market TickPick’s data indicates the vast majority of its ticket purchasers hail from outside of Nevada.

California tops the list on TickPick at 59.4 percent; Texas is second (8.5 percent); Colorado tied with Arizona for the third-highest buy from a state at 7.7 percent; Massachusetts is at No. 5 with 3.9 percent of the ticket purchase share and Rhode Island just behind it with 3.7 percent.

Look no further than the Raiders’ home schedule to understand the makeup of the most popular purchase destinations.

Only 1.7 percent of tickets purchased on TickPick are fans from Nevada. Sixty percent of season ticket-holders hail from the Silver State.

Those traveling fans also mainly stay in hotel rooms within Clark County. That means they’re helping pay for the $750 million in public financing for Allegiant Stadium. The 0.88 percent tax on hotel rooms in Southern Nevada helps generate the funds used to pay the biannual bond payments. Between March 2017 and June 2022, the room tax had accumulated $224.6 million.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also noted that sports is now the No. 2 reason why tourists visit Las Vegas. That represents a financial boon outside of the room tax.

“Certainly when it comes to the economy, it’s fantastic,” said Naft, who also sits on the LVCVA Board of Directors.

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