Seahawks set preseason game schedule, hoping and trending toward having fans at them
The Seahawks’ newly shortened schedule of three preseason games is set.
So is the intent to have fans back inside Lumen Field for them.
Seattle’s preseason games will all be against the AFC West and will all be on Saturdays in August, the team and NFL announced Friday:
- Aug. 14, 6 pm at Las Vegas
- Aug. 21, 7 pm vs Denver
- Aug 28, 7pm vs the Los Angeles Chargers
The Seahawks hope to have fans back inside their home stadium for those two exhibition games in the SoDo section of downtown Seattle for the first time since Dec. 29, 2019, a Sunday-night, regular-season finale against the San Francisco 49ers that was for that season’s NFC West championship.
The Seahawks were one of 10 NFL teams to not have any fans in the stands for any of their home games during the 2020 season, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Five of the 10 teams that had no fans at games are based in the Pacific Time Zone.
The Seahawks have said “we are thrilled to be actively preparing to host fans at Lumen Field in the fall, including conducting our standard ticket sales process. We are continuing to work closely with the NFL, as well as local public health and government officials on planning for gameday and will contine to follow all local guidelines for public sporting events.”
Those local guidelines are trending the right way in Seattle for Seahawks fans attending games this summer, fall and winter.
Major League Baseball’s Mariners and Major League Soccer’s Sounders have had about 9,000 fans, about 25% of their stadiums’ capacities, at their games in Seattle this spring. That’s been per King County, Washington state and their leagues’ approvals and policies.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said this spring his league is looking forward to a return of stadiums being full of fans this regular season.
Goodell’s assessment came as the number of people in the U.S. fully vaccinated from COVID-19 was rising.
The NFL didn’t play preseason games last year because of the pandemic. This year the league reduced preseason games from four to three, because of the addition of a 17th game to the 2021 regular season.
Seattle playing its old AFC West rivals in exhibition games has become standard fare.
This will be the 15th consecutive preseason the Seahawks and Raiders have played. It’s the fourth straight year Seattle will play the Chargers in the preseason. It will be the eighth time in 11 seasons the Seahawks and Broncos will play in the preseason.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 5:47 PM.
