Sports have made their triumphant return across the country as football season kicks off, but the fans have been relegated to television for most games. With most sports boasting outdoor seating, there’s no reason for that to continue on.
Major League Baseball is still not approaching a point where it will allow fans — despite all but one team playing outdoors. College football is all over the map, with setups ranging from empty stadiums to limited-capacity fans to family members of the players only. Meanwhile, NASCAR was able to put fans back in the grandstands in July, and smaller, local sporting events have been allowing fans outdoors in a limited capacity as well.
The most baffling situation right now is the NFL. Next Thursday, the season will start in Kansas City, Missouri, with fan attendance at about 22% capacity. But NFL owners want the league to move backward, calling for a universal standard for all teams rather than allowing them to chart their own way. This would mean that the league would default to the strictest attendance policy, banning fans for the entire season as the teams in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington have already announced.
There are 26 NFL teams that play outdoors, but only six teams have decided to allow fans for their first home game. Another team, the Cleveland Browns, is waiting approval from the Ohio government. Outdoor events in Philadelphia are limited to 50 people, regardless of the social distancing put in place. The Eagles could sit over 70,000 in their stadium, but it would be irresponsible to spread out 15,000 fans across that space?
Lockdowns started in mid-March. It’s been five and a half months since then. If protesters can gather shoulder to shoulder in the streets (with NFL players attending), then they can space fans out among massive outdoor stadiums. The original purpose of the lockdowns was to “slow the spread” and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed, not isolate people altogether.
There is no safer activity than going to a socially distanced outdoor game. Football and baseball stadiums don’t compare to small restaurants or office jobs. It’s past time that we begin returning to normal as safely as possible, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be starting with our sports.
