Raiders fans urged to use alternate vaccination screening ahead of game

Fans heading to Sunday’s Raiders-Chicago Bears game at Allegiant Stadium who wish to take part in the alternate COVID vaccine screening process are urged to do so ahead of kickoff.

A tent set up in Lot B of the stadium provides fans who can’t or wish not to use the Clear smartphone application the opportunity to utilize the alternate screening process. Fans also have the ability to receive their first COVID vaccination shot in the tent, which allows them to attend the game, but while wearing a mask. Fans who are fully inoculated for the virus are allowed to attend Raiders games without wearing a mask.

The tent will be open Saturday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The Raiders have offered the screening for their previous two home games and team president Dan Ventrelle said it’s been a successful endeavor, with 21,300 fans going through the alternate screening process.

The integration of the Clear app has also been widely used, with over 80,000 people downloading the app for Raiders games, Ventrelle said.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Ventrelle said. “We’ve felt a lot of people have responded to it by either getting vaccinated on their own … or we’ve had 617 get vaccinated on site (at the stadium). So we’ve had good success in making sure that we’re creating the motivation to have a safe environment.”

Having that safe environment allows for fully vaccinated fans to enjoy games without wearing a mask, something that is uncommon in most public settings with the state mask mandate in place.

“Safety drives it and that’s the No. 1 priority, but it does create the same exciting environment that we all remember,” Ventrelle said. “You don’t have to wear a mask, you can cheer for your team and be loud. You can eat and drink and gather with your friends and not have to distance … you can’t do that in a lot of places now and it’s a nice opportunity for people to be themselves.”

Ventrelle said other NFL teams have reached out to the Raiders inquiring about their vaccine mandate to attend games.

“We’ve received a lot of inquiries from other teams who have tried to figure out how to do it,” Ventrelle said. “I know a lot of teams have looked at what we’ve done and tried to figure out how they could replicate it or do something similar. The league (NFL) was out here for our first game on Monday Night (Football) and they were very complimentary of how efficient it was and how full it was before kickoff.”

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