The long-awaited moment is finally upon us. The first time Raiders Owner Mark Davis will set foot in Allegiant Stadium to watch the Silver & Black play, after he made good on a pledge last season to not attend a game until Raider Nation could join him.
On Saturday, August 14, before kickoff of the 2021 preseason opener, Davis will cut the ribbon during a special ceremony to officially open what he called the Silver & Black’s “field of dreams” three years, nine months and one day ago during groundbreaking ceremonies at this very same location.
“We are going to kick it off the right way with 65,000 people,” Davis said. “It may be a preseason game but it’s going to be our party as well because it’s the first time, No. 1, a vast majority of Raiders fans will be in the stadium, but it will also be the first time I’ll be in there for an event.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. in the Ford Plaza at the north end of Allegiant Stadium. All doors will open following the ribbon-cutting to allow ticket holders for Saturday’s game inside to experience what Allegiant Stadium has to offer.
“It’s our house but we got to give them the keys,” Davis said. “And I think finally on the 14th, they are going to have the key to walk into their house and really see what we built, and it’s a football stadium first.”
The day will celebrate not only the opening of the stadium to all, but it will honor the 12,000-plus men and women who were members of an ultra-diverse workforce who contributed more than six million labor hours to the design and construction of the Raiders’ new home.
It is only fitting this milestone moment in the history of the Raiders, Las Vegas, the NFL and the world, is being celebrated with Hall of Fame entertainment.
Singer-songwriter Judith Hill, who opened the groundbreaking ceremony in November 2017 with a rousing live performance, will once again perform alongside the Las Vegas House of Blues Choir in a special pregame show before the Raiders face the Seattle Seahawks.
Las Vegas resident and music industry icon Marie Osmond joins an illustrious list of performers who have honored America before a Raiders game as the multiple gold and platinum selling artist and chart-topper will sing the National Anthem prior to kickoff of the Silver and Black’s lone home preseason game of 2021. Osmond has spent over a decade performing on the Las Vegas Strip.
Lifelong Raiders fan and entertainment superstar Carlos Santana will headline the halftime show during Saturday’s game. Santana’s music has been a fixture at Raiders games for decades and the chords of his music help make up the fabric of a Raiders gameday as his hit tunes have been both in-stadium and tailgate favorites.
Santana and recently enshrined Pro Hall of Famer Tom Flores share a special relationship which dates back decades. Flores, the two-time Super Bowl-winning Raiders Head Coach, and Santana, who has entertained audiences in Las Vegas for a half-century, have followed each other’s careers and formed a bond as their families share similar backgrounds.
The Greatness of the Raiders is in its future. And that future is now!
“It was built for the Raiders. It was built for the Nation. It was built for our alumni. It was built for everybody, and it was built for the people of Las Vegas because they put their skin in the game as well,” Davis said. “We are just so proud of it and when you see people out there at all hours, which I have, it just really legitimizes what we did. I’m just so excited about it.”
It has been built. Welcome in Raider Nation, and the world!
ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMER BIOS
JUDITH HILL—Pregame Performance
Over the course of her remarkable career, Judith Hill has shared the stage with legends including Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Prince. Hill’s musical journey was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, where she received a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. In 2015, she debuted her first album, Back In Time, which is described as a powerful collection of songs that celebrate her roots in funk and soul music.
PATTI PENNINGTON AND THE HOUSE OF BLUES CHOIR—Pregame Performance
Patti Pennington and the House of Blues Gospel Choir has been performing together for over eight years. Pennington has been part of the House of Blues family and director of the Gospel Brunch for over 16 years. The choir performed for the Las Vegas Raiders as part of the stadium groundbreaking ceremony in 2017 and has worked with talent such as Lou Gramm, Brad Paisley and Judith Hill.
MARIE OSMOND—National Anthem
Marie Osmond is an iconic performer in Las Vegas, spending more than 11 years performing on the strip with her brother (Donny Osmond). She has spent five decades in the entertainment business performing as a successful singer, television personality, talk show host, dancer, actor, author, entrepreneur and public speaker. Marie is a multiple gold and platinum selling artist, and CMA winner, garnering numerous Billboard chart-topping singles and albums. She has also written three New York Times bestselling books.
CARLOS SANTANA—Halftime Performance
A life-long Raiders fan, Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán is a Mexican American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock ‘n’ roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured his melodic, blues-based lines set against Latin American and African rhythms played on percussion instruments not heard in rock, such as timbales and congas. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine listed him at No. 20 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists. He has received 10 Grammy Awards, three Latin Grammy Awards and was inducted along with his namesake band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Carlos is releasing a new star-studded album, Blessings & Miracles, planned for release in October 2021.
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