Raiders, Allegiant Stadium big hit on ticket resale market

Allegiant Stadium will be a popular destination during the 2020 NFL season as the Raiders kick off their inaugural season in Las Vegas.

Following the release of the NFL schedule last week, the Raiders are the most in-demand team as far as sales with ticket reseller SeatGeek.

The average price of a Raiders home game as of Monday at the sold-out 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium is $622, according to SeatGeek. That’s comfortably ahead of the second-highest average-priced ticket, the Seattle Seahawks at $439.

“We have seen incredibly strong demand for Raiders tickets with their move to Las Vegas,” said Chris Leyden, SeatGeek spokesman. “Interestingly, while the demand is strong from the local market, it is already becoming apparent that this will be a destination city and venue, as we have seen people looking at tickets from all 50 states.”

With Las Vegas as a top tourist destination and Allegiant Stadium and the Raiders making their debut, the demand for Raiders games makes sense, especially after the team sold out its personal seat licenses in January.

About 60 percent of those sales came from buyers in Nevada, with 40 percent from outside. A PSL gives the person who purchases a seat in the stadium exclusive rights to buy Raiders season tickets.

“I’m not aware of any stadium that’s sold out eight months before it opened,” Raiders president Marc Badain said in January. “There was a lot of doubt that this market could support any sports team. We’ve obviously in this market shown an exorbitant amount of support and we’re another example of that.”

With the price of Raiders tickets surging, the average cost of an NFL ticket on SeatGeek is $50 higher than at the same time last year, Leyden said.

The Raiders home games are also the best-selling NFL ticket by volume, besting the second-place Los Angeles Rams, who are slated to begin their season in the under-construction SoFi Stadium and third-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who welcome superstar quarterback Tom Brady, after signing him in free agency after a 20-year career with the New England Patriots.

Raiders games at Allegiant Stadium also account for three of the top five best-selling games on SeatGeek.

The Sept. 21 home-opener versus the New Orleans Saints is the top-selling game, with the Nov. 22 game versus the rival Kansas City Chiefs at No. 4 and the Oct. 4 game versus Brady and the Buccaneers at No. 5.

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