Attendance to be determined by state/county (1 Viewer)

Thoughts?


I’m no fan of our Mayor’s rush to cancel events in NOLA, but I don’t see anywhere in this announcement stating the NFL would leave this decision in the hands of local officials. If instead, as I believe should be the case, they plan to base game attendance allowances on regional Covid-19 data, then I support the idea 100%.

For one thing, Orleans parish is doing great in that regard. We’ve made it 10 days into Phase 2 of reopening and 3 weeks into BLM protests without significant increases of infection rates. We have become a model of responsible behavior (go figure) when it comes to wearing masks and social distancing. There’s no reason to think that New Orleans wouldn’t have at least as many fans in attendance as any other franchise. JP could stand to tighten up a bit with the masks, IMO, but the overall numbers are still not horrible. Certainly not as bad as many of our neighbors in the Deep South.

Which brings me to my second point, what better incentive could there be than football to remind people to do everything they can to not be a spreader? Even if you can’t, don’t, or won’t attend any games this season, who doesn’t want to see our Saints continue to have one of the best homefield advantages in the league??? As long as the attendance is determined by data rather than decree, I love this idea!
 
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That sure seems ridiculous to allow some teams such a competitive advantage. They would not even allow draft prep to differ between teams/cities.
The key difference is restricting draft prep didn't cost the league money, limiting attendance does. Proving once again that nothing is ever about safety when Goodell says it is, only money.
 
This will be interesting here in New Orleans, because every step of the way, whatever the Gov has said, Mayor Cantrell has had to put her thumb on to throw her weight around to prove she is in charge and keep N.O. more strict than the rest of La. So, I wonder who will prevail with Saints attendance, Edwards' less restrictions, or Cantrell's more restrictions?
 
That’s just Wishful thinking. no way there’s gonna be fans this season. How could the NFL allow certain teams to have fans but not others?? That would be such a ridiculous competitive advantage.

Because the NFL is a business - it's not the Olympic Committee . . . I think their first priority will be trying to get a season played in some shape or form without it being a total mess. But I think the second priority will be to minimize business disruption as best as possible. Using 'competition interests' to order a franchise's stadium to only sell 5K seats when local law would allow it to sell 20K doesn't seem to be in the best business interest.

It's also possible that some cities won't allow games to be played at all, whereas others will. Will they cancel the season because it's not fair to the small handful of teams impacted by those orders? I just don't see the league letting the most restrictive state or locality set the bar for the whole league.

I think these possibilities have long been at the top of the list of concerns. And also why it remains foreseeable that they'll play in front of no fans . . . if at all.
 
This will be interesting here in New Orleans, because every step of the way, whatever the Gov has said, Mayor Cantrell has had to put her thumb on to throw her weight around to prove she is in charge and keep N.O. more strict than the rest of La. So, I wonder who will prevail with Saints attendance, Edwards' less restrictions, or Cantrell's more restrictions?

If current trends continue, I doubt there will be much of a divergence between the two come the beginning of September.
 
I don’t think that difference will be noticeable if teams have different regulations. None of the stadiums will sound loud for these players. If they at least keep a percentage base for how many tickets are offered to opposing teams.
 
It could turn out bad or good, but that's the way it should be. Our government is supposed to be bottom up. The hierarchy is individuals, families, towns, counties, states, and the Federal government dead last. The NFL is an individual, so they can do as they please, including defer to the people, which I like.

This virus is starting to un-snowball almost as fast as it snowballed. I think things will get back to normal a lot faster than many people think.
 
I have every bit of confidence that the state and local governments will act in the interest of public health and not be influenced and lobbied by sports teams who are almost always one of the top economic drivers of the city they're in. Politicians have a tremendous history of putting the interest of their constituents above their donors and big business. I trust them.

:cheer: :cheer: :cheer:
😂😂
 
This will be interesting here in New Orleans, because every step of the way, whatever the Gov has said, Mayor Cantrell has had to put her thumb on to throw her weight around to prove she is in charge and keep N.O. more strict than the rest of La. So, I wonder who will prevail with Saints attendance, Edwards' less restrictions, or Cantrell's more restrictions?
There is no conflict. All local authority is delegated by the state. That's why the mayor of Atlanta could not override the Georgia governor's to begin reopening, the same thing in Texas and Florida.
 
I'm not sure how the local politics are down there right now but is it possible they end up playing in Baton Rouge if the Mayor won't let them sell tickets?
 
There is no conflict if (a) the state clearly has the non-legislative authority to countermand public-health measures adopted by the city and elects to use that authority; (b) the positions of the state and the city government are identical; or (c) the state elects to defer to the city. But I have no idea as to the non-legislative authority of the state to countermand public-health measures adopted by the city in the 30 urban districts where NFL stadiums are located.

However, I think this discussion as to what will happen if the city adopts more stringent public-health measures than the state is academic. In the spring, the NFL decided what its teams could do and could not do, regardless of what actions were taken by the different states or cities. In my mind, the issue is whether we will have some kind of a season without fans. I do not see fans in stadiums this fall, and I do not see the NFL making a decision on fan-attendance based on what individual states and cities will allow so that fans in Florida can attend games whereas fans in Los Angeles and New York and Chicago and another 20 venues cannot. Because it likes money so much, the NFL is driven by public relations. It cannot afford story after story of fans contracting Covid-19 at a football game--of John Smith, a season-ticket holder with four children and eight grandchildren who never missed a game in 30 years, dying because he contracted the virus at a game. The NBA did not shut down completely in early March because of what states and cities were doing. The NFL is going to decide what is safe and is going to apply what it decides to all 32 teams, even if some play in places where the political authorities will allow fans to attend athletic events.

And then as I said before, there are the liability concerns: will every fan attending have to sign a waiver, has his temperature checked, have to fill out a questionnaire attesting he has no symptoms; what social-distancing measures will there be; will fans be required to wear masks. And come September, the public-health community will overwhelmingly be of the opinion that attendance at sporting events is a really bad idea.

Look, I hope that I am totally wrong about the direction of Covid-19 and that an effective therapy for those with the disease has been discovered. (An approved vaccine widely available in the next six months seems highly unlikely.) But I don't see good things happening the rest of this year.
 
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It’s not going to happen. How many times have we seen clusters popping up in bars? Roughly the same as a sports stadium, with drinking, shouting, possibly eating and little social distancing. You get the superdome even at 1/3 capacity and you’re still close enough to people to feel their breath as they yell and scream. With numbers already going up, what are the odds that there will be people who are sick in that crowd? What are they going to do open 6 hours early to do health screenings? Socially distance in the bathrooms?
To say nothing of the fact that by the time you get 80+ players, plus coaches and supporting staff each day of the week with guys who travel all over the US, how do you expect them to stay healthy enough to play? How are you even going to keep 32 teams playing and healthy?
 
A typo in the second sentence doesn’t lend to this being a real journalistic piece. Just some internet jockeys looking for clicks. They have the same quality “sources” as most of us on this page.
 

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