The whole NFL may be the 1996 Houston Oilers’ final season at the Astrodome with no crowd noise.
While the league may be considering pumping in fake crowd noise, there is no way to replace the revenue that real fans generate. According to an article from Mike Ozanian of Forbes using figures from 2018, the Houston Texans stand to lose $218 million, roughly 43.9% of their annual revenue, if games are played without fans inside NRG Stadium.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the sports world with suspensions of seasons in the NBA, NHL, MLB, college sports, and a lot more. The NFL has weathered the storm since COVID-19 has occurred during its offseason. It was not that big of a change to have the 2020 NFL Draft virtually since the draft is nothing more than a three-day reveal of a list anyway. The league and host city, which would have been Las Vegas, lost out on the event and economic benefit of having fans, but the operation went smoothly.
Take the games though. Fans generate revenue for teams with parking, concessions, tickets, and trips to the team shop inside the stadium. It goes beyond just being a part of the emotional factor in games. And the Forbes article doesn’t even take into account the loss of revenue NFL venues have had to face with the cancellation of concerts and other events.
The NFL allowed teams to reopen their team facilities on May 19, and the Texans were one of those teams. However, the players and coaches, who would have been in the middle of their offseason workouts with rookie minicamp already completed, are not yet allowed at team facilities. Until that checkpoint is reached, the 2020 NFL season is still wrought with question marks as to the feasibility of even playing it on time or at all.
