Green Bay Packers: Games Without Fans?

The Green Bay Packers could see a scenario where they play games at Lambeau Field without fans, although that still seems far-fetched.

As U.S. states deal with COVID-19 and standards to re-open, limiting or banning fans at live sporting events is still an option being mulled by lawmakers and professional sports entities.  That could include the Green Bay Packers playing home games without fans.

The mere idea that fans won’t be allowed inside Lambeau for a game sounds like their worst nightmare or something out of the Twilight Zone.  Few, if any other NFL cities are more defined by their football team than Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The NFL has surely already vetted the various scenarios in which its revenues are impacted by games with fewer or no fans.  In the latter scenario, CBS Sports estimates that teams stand to lose up to $70 million in gate sales over the course of both preseason and the regular season.

While that is a worst-case scenario and bleak-sounding, the NFL has time on its side right now.  More so than basketball, baseball, or hockey, to name a few other pro sports, the NFL stands to benefit most by the natural timing of its calendar.  While spring mini camps have not and will not take place with players and coaches in attendance, the very vital training camps could still start on time for most NFL teams in later July.

That will largely depend on the earlier-mentioned state-mandated terms under which each state allows businesses to resume.  Some states have already begun to reopen and have language that specifically addresses sporting events.

According to a recent Yahoo Sports article, Arizona is allowing professional sports to resume beginning Saturday, May 16th but with no fans in attendance, for now.  This stipulation would seem to validate recent reports that Major League Baseball plans to start another Spring Training next month with games to potentially begin in July.

Overseas, some professional sports leagues have begun to resume play with heavy guidelines in place for how many fans can attend and where they’re permitted to sit.  Green Bay Packers fans who are hopeful to attend a home game this season are surely also hoping that the NFL is watching how successful some of these measures are.

The Packers themselves have many reasons to want the season to start on time and with fans in the stands.  Revenues are obviously paramount but a team that has a guaranteed sellout for the next 25+ years would also be facing a major dilemma if they’re not able to honor any number of those ticket sales.  The PR fallout from handling that poorly would be disastrous.

Offering some hope that the 2020 season will play out as planned, the NFL released its 2020 schedule last week with no changes to the opening week or any other game dates. The biggest adjustment made was the elimination of international games, which made no impact to the weekly game slates.

There is still time before any major decisions might be made by the NFL regarding fans attending games but, as of today, it seems prudent for the league, teams, and fans to start preparing for what could be coming their way.

In the Packers’ case, hopefully, any plan to play home games without fans remains merely a contingency and doesn’t become that worst nightmare come true.