The New Orleans Saints might go into their Week 6 bye having played no games in front of a live audience. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Friday that the Saints will not be granted permission by the city government to host fans in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for their Sept. 27 game with the Green Bay Packers, ensuring that each of the first four Saints games of 2020 will be played without fans in attendance.
While the Saints already received permission from the Louisiana state government to play games with fans in the Superdome, the city of New Orleans will remain in Phase 2 of its COVID-19 pandemic recovery plan, which prohibits such gatherings.
It leaves the Saints with just one game before their bye week to welcome fans back to the Superdome: an Oct. 12 kickoff with the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football. If New Orleans has progressed into Phase 3 by then, fans could be allowed into the Superdome in a limited capacity, but it’s too soon to say at this time.
We’ve known for quite some time that fans would not be able to attend the season-opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday, and the rest of their pre-bye week games (road contests with the Las Vegas Raiders and Detroit Lions) have also been steadily chipped away as other teams around the league implement fan attendance policies.
That’s hardly the farewell tour for Drew Brees that had been envisioned, should this be his last year in the NFL. But the COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented, and until the public health crisis is better contained, more changes should be expected.
