Las Vegas Raiders Owner Mark Davis Says All Fans Or No Fans

In comments that he made to ESPN, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis, expressed frustration with the NFL’s lax approach to the COVID-19 crisis. The NFL has had several issues to iron out including player testing, health and safety protocols, compensation with reduced revenue, fan-attendance and whether or not there will be pre-season games.

Davis publicly took issue with some NFL proposals that prohibited some but not all fans from attending, such as, tarping over the first eight rows in order to reduce crowd size and increase the distance between player and fan. Davis told ESPN, “The optics are terrible: advertising on top of seats belonging to people you’re telling they can’t come to the game. I’d rather have everybody pissed at me than just one person. I’ve got to make it up to them, and I will. This is all about safety and equity.”

These comments come the same day that several marquee NFL superstars took to Twitter expressing their frustrations with the lack of progress the NFL has made and offered views that football may not happen this upcoming fall if the league keeps dragging their feet. This seems an attempt by players and owners to create momentum towards figuring these issues out since players are meant to report to training camps this week and many aspects of the NFL’s return still seem up in the air.

Whether or not it was planned or spurred on by these recent calls to action, the NFL owners have scheduled a meeting at 2 p.m ET on Monday with the intent of finalizing terms on these issues. There has been a prevailing sense within the discussion surrounding the NFL that the league has been dragging their feet and seem to have the least things figured out between any of the major sports leagues, despite having the advantage of the longest natural layoff. Whether or not the owners can figure these issues out and get the 2020 NFL season on track remains to be seen.