Statue of Liberty dons Raiders jersey on the Las Vegas Strip
Las Vegas saw its biggest Raiders fan emerge Thursday morning as a massive Silver & Black jersey was draped over the Statue of Liberty at New York-New York.
The jersey was fitted on the 150-foot-tall Lady Liberty on the Las Vegas Strip just in time for the 2020 NFL season, which kicks off Thursday night.
Printed by Las Vegas-based Screaming Images and installed by YESCO, the jersey stands 75 1/2 feet tall, 55 feet wide and weighs 620 pounds.
It took crews about 6 hours to fully install the jersey on the statue, while four lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard at Tropicana Avenue were closed to traffic during the process.
Raiders fans will have to wait until Sunday for the team’s first game as Las Vegas’ NFL franchise. The Raiders take on the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Allegiant Stadium, which sits just over a mile away from the statue, will be broken in by the Raiders in their first home game in Las Vegas on Sept. 21 as they take on the New Orleans Saints on “Monday Night Football.”
The Statue of Liberty has shown her fandom for the Las Vegas professional sports scene before, donning an NBA All-Star jersey ahead of the 2007 event at the Thomas & Mack Center, a Golden Knights hockey sweater multiple times since their inaugural season in 2017-18 and a Las Vegas Aces jersey in 2018 when the WNBA franchise opened play at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
