The Raiders take the field at Allegiant Stadium tomorrow for their first game in front of the Raider Nation after the pandemic kept them apart last year.
Jon Gruden enters his fourth season as head coach, leading the team to a 19-29 record. The Raiders had one of the most porous defenses in the league last year and some commentators are wondering if Gruden is the right person for the job.
That question will start to be answered Saturday when the Raiders play host to the Seattle Seahawks in the first preseason game of the year.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sportswriter Vincent Bonsignore said the Raiders addressed some of their weaknesses in the off-season, particularly on defense with a new defensive coordinator, the addition of veteran players, and drafting safety Trevon Moehrig.
“When you stand back and look at what they did,” Bonsignore said, “this offseason certainly made a lot of sense from a personnel standpoint.”
The Silver and Black also faced some off-field drama this year with the departure of several executives and vociferous complaints about stadium parking.
Parting ways with the Raiders in recent weeks were: team President Marc Badain, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development Brandon Dol, CFO Ed Villanueva, and controller Araxie Grant.
Bonsignore something probably triggered the move, but that has yet to be revealed.
“I tend to think something happened,” he said, “and as a result, you know, some people lost their job over it. I think all of this will come out eventually.”
A more obvious issue for the team is parking and traffic control, which were widely panned after this summer's Garth Brooks concert inaugurated big events at the stadium.
Before his departure, Badain said officials were "not naive" about the need to improve parking, and that future events would provide learning opportunities.
"It's really early in the operation of the stadium, and all of these things will not only be worked out, over, I think, a relatively short period of time by the folks run in the stadium and the Raiders, but also, by the people who go. It's all new for them as well," said Steve Hill, chairman of the board that runs the stadium and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Hill said one solution would be the proposed Vegas Loop tunnel project being developed by Elon Musk. The tunnel system would link the stadium with parking at resort properties and the Las Vegas Convention Center.
"It would be a really significant benefit," he said. "I'm here at the convention center right now you could park here at the convention center, and be dropped off at the stadium, you know, five or six minutes after getting into a car here.
"It ties all the parking up and down the resort cord or to every other venue on the resort corridor, including the stadium. So once that project is built out, that will make a real difference."
Review-Journal reporter Mick Akers said heavy traffic is a price Las Vegas is paying for becoming a big-league city.
"If you've been to any kind of large events based anywhere in the U.S., you see this," he said. "When you have 65,000 people going into one area, you're going to see traffic no matter what,"
For Saturday's game, fans are advised to arrive at Allegiant Stadium three hours early.
Steve Hill, chairman, Las Vegas Stadium Authority; Mick Akers, reporter, Las Vegas Review-Journal; Vincent Bonsignore, reporter, Las Vegas Review-Journal
