Seahawks to play second consecutive road game in front of fans. What about in Seattle?
The Seahawks aren’t having fans at their home games because of the continued spread of the COVID-19 virus.
But they will play their second consecutive road game in front of some.
The Arizona Cardinals announced Friday they will host about 1,200 fans for their next home game, Oct. 25 against Seattle following the Seahawks’ bye.
The Seahawks beat the Dolphins two weeks ago in front of just over 12,000 fans in Miami.
The Cardinals said the Arizona Department of Health granted the team permission to host about 1,200 season-ticket holders. The Cardinals will select them based on seniority holding ticket accounts with the team. Seats will be limited to two per ticket buyer.
Other provisions to the Cardinals allowing fans for the Seahawks game include: mandatory mask wearing (“failure to comply will result in ejection,” the Cardinals said); fans spread 600 per side on the east and west sidelines of University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale; to allow for social distancing, seats not available will be zip-tied to prevent their use (as they were in MIami); and tickets, parking and concession sales will be 100% digital and touchless, scanned by attendants upon entrance.
The Cardinals became the first NFL team west of the Rocky Mountains to get approval from state and local governments per public-health restrictions to have fans at games.
The COVID-19 virus is prohibiting fans from attending games in Seattle. The result is a 69,000-seat stadium so silent one can hear players yelling and cheering from the field and sideline up in the press box three levels and a hundred or so yards away.
Coach Pete Carroll began his postgame press conference Sunday night following his team’s comeback win over Minnesota bemoaning that fans again could not be inside CenturyLink Field to shake it to its bolts during yet another wild ending to a Seahawks game.
“I have regret. I have a major regret that the 12s weren’t here to see that one, as well as all these other games that have been here in this season,” the coach said. “It’s so regrettable that you haven’t been able to enjoy it.
“Because you guys would have never gone home tonight.”
This week the Philadelphia Eagles will become the latest team to have some fans in attendance at a home game for the first time. The Eagles are planning for 7,500 people at their game against Baltimore at Lincoln Financial Field. That’s per an order last week by Pennsylvania’s governor that allows reduced-capacity crowds at Eagles and Steelers games.
Arizona is the 17th NFL team, just over half the league, that is having or planning to have some fans at games by Nov. 1. The others are: Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Denver, Kansas City, Dallas, Green Bay, Atlanta, Carolina and Tampa Bay.
Eight of the 14 games across the league this weekend will be played in front of at least some fans.
King County and Washington remain one of the more locked-down counties and states in the country, and have been since the pandemic began six months ago.
So far, those polices are working in their aim to contain the coronavirus. Washington’s rates of COVID-19 cases have stabilized relative to the rest of the country, and to the NFL, for that matter.
That continued lockdown has come at a huge economic cost to workers and industries in our state and along the West Coast.
Less important, it has come at a huge cost to Seahawks fans who want to see their team play again. The team has said only that there will not be fans for at least the first three home games. The third is Nov. 1 against San Francisco.
No signs in Washington from government or public-health polices suggests fans in CenturyLink Field anytime soon.
Carroll was asked on his weekly radio show with Seattle’s KIRO AM Monday at the start of his team’s bye week if there’s any chance fans can come to Seahawks home games this season.
The coach replied he knows of “some (undefined) conversations that, hopefully, there can be some people there at the end” of the season.
Seattle’s last regular-season home game is scheduled for Dec. 27 against the Los Angeles Rams, in week 16.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 2:04 PM.
