A concert by country music star Garth Brooks is apparently still on for next month at Allegiant Stadium.
During a Las Vegas Stadium Authority virtual meeting Thursday, Applied Analysis principal Jeremy Aguero told board members that “a number of opening events for August and September” at the nearly $2 billion stadium remain scheduled despite widespread concern over COVID-19 safety.
Following the announcement of the Aug. 22 concert in March, 65,000 tickets were sold in a little over an hour on March 13.
But with cases of the virus gradually increasing over the last month, the concert going off as scheduled could be considered a long shot. The state on Thursday reported 1,447 new cases of the virus, a record daily high. A total of 1,315 of the cases were in Clark County.
Following the authority’s meeting, Aguero directed questions about the Brooks concert to ASM Global, the firm contracted to manage Allegiant Stadium.
A phone message left for ASM Global CEO Bob Newman was not immediately returned Thursday.
Next month’s concert is part of the country star’s Garth Brooks Stadium Tour. According to Brooks’ website, tour dates scheduled for last month in Cincinnati and Charlotte were rescheduled, though the Las Vegas show remains listed for its original date.
Aguero told stadium authority members that the new home of the Las Vegas Raiders and the UNLV football team is still on track for “substantial completion” on July 31. It’s still unknown whether fan attendance during the upcoming National Football League season will be limited because of the coronavirus.
The Raiders first game in the new stadium is scheduled for Aug. 27 as a preseason tilt against the Arizona Cardinals. Preseason games, however, might not end up being played as it’s been reported by Yahoo! Sports and other outlets that a trimmed-down — or even eliminated — preseason schedule is still possible.
UNLV has had two Allegiant Stadium home dates, against California and Arizona State, canceled because the Pac-12 earlier this month announced it would only play conference games this football season, if a season is played at all.