The NFL is moving forward with the 2020 regular season as scheduled, and as of now, sports leagues seem to be embracing the idea of getting back to action with zero fans in attendance. Fox broadcaster Joe Buck says he believes that networks will pump in crowd sound to replicate a normal game atmosphere when football does return this fall. According to Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, though, it could be possible to accommodate some fans in stadiums.
During an appearance on CNBC, Tepper said that he believes there will be enough tests by the fall to ensure that players will be kept safe from week to week, and that there’s no reason why some percentage of seats couldn’t be filled by fans.
Via CNBC:
“There should be some amount of fans in the stadiums, depending on what locale and where you are and what the local rules are…. You won’t be having full stadiums, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fans in the stadium either. If you’re comfortable being in a closed airplane for a cross-country trip, 18 inches apart, maybe with two seats in between you and being 5 feet away from each other, you might be comfortable in an open-air stadium.”
It’s a bit of a strange comparison, as by all accounts, not very many people are currently comfortable with cross-country flights! Still, there’s no question that football fans would line up to see their teams play in person this fall, and given the size of NFL stadiums – assuming each team gets to play in its home market – a socially-distanced stadium setup is possible. Whether the NFL or individual teams would want to take the risk of fans getting infected at games is a much more difficult question.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told Peter King this week that it would be feasible to have some fans attend games if the level of infection in a given community is low.
Via SI.com:
“If the virus is so low that even in the general community the risk is low, then I could see filling a third of the stadium or half the stadium so people could be six feet apart. I mean, that’s something that is again feasible depending on the level of infection.”
