Bills use Dolphins trip to gather intel for return of fans in Buffalo
The first home game of the 2020 NFL season looked much different for the Buffalo Bills without fans in the stands. Many teams in the league are playing in front of empty seats as a safety precaution due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States. However, a few teams are allowing limited seating.
Among those? Buffalo’s most-recent opponent, the Miami Dolphins. Prior to the Bills heading to Miami last weekend, the Dolphins announced 13,000 tickets would be sold in the 65,000-seat venue, Hard Rock Stadium for that game.
As of now, the Bills will not allow fans at home games in September as they work with New York State officials towards finding a safe resolution to the situation. That means this coming Sunday’s Week 3 meeting with the Rams won’t have fans involved. But Buffalo’s Week 5 meeting with the Chiefs on Thursday Night Football on Oct. 15 is still on the table, and the Bills, according to the Buffalo News, used their Week 2 trip to South Beach to gather intel on the safety measures the Dolphins undertook in order to allow limited seating.
The Bills previously said in a July statement to season ticket holders they planned for limited attendance… when permitted. The State and the Bills have not yet settled on a time when any amount of fans could be allowed in their venue, only so far saying it won’t happen in September. Season ticket holders were also given the choice to opt-out of the 2020 season and return for 2021 with the same seats and seniority.
The Bills also previously confirmed that they already had some limited-seating charts created for Bills Stadium. Those plans include scenarios of 15, 33 and 50 percent capacities of fans. It remains to be seen if the team dusts off any of these in the coming weeks.
After not playing in front of any fans in Week 2, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott felt positive about having people in attendance in Miami last weekend, at least.
“Miami allowed a certain percentage of fans, and I’m happy to say a significant percentage were Bills fans, so that was awesome to see, and I just was fired up,” said McDermott on Monday via video conference. “We ran out of the tunnel to that ovation and that cheer and you could hear the crowd, and that gave me chills. Just hearing that when we ran out of somebody else’s tunnel, that was awesome.”
Current in the NFL, the Dolphins are joined by the Jaguars, Cowboys, Chiefs, Broncos, Colts, Browns, and Bengals as teams that are allowing a limited number of fans in their stadium during home games.
