Latest on Titans fan attendance.
New Tennessee Titans President Burke Nihill had a press conference today, and there is some new information on what the Titans can expect in terms of fan attendance.
Just a reminder, the NFL doesn’t have a league-wide mandate on which fan bases can have fans in the stands or even what the requirements should be for letting fans attend games in 2020.
The Titans have announced that fans won’t be allowed to attend the season opener, but the questions start again when discussing the all-important month of October. See, Tennessee plays just three games in October and all of them are against AFC teams.
Making it even more important, two of those teams made the playoffs last year in the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills, while the Pittsburgh Steelers barely missed despite not having their starting quarterback.
It is very important to try to get any edge you can in these games because these are the wins or losses that you forget about until Week 12 when you are trying to see where the Titans stand in the playoff push. Going 3-0 over that stretch can mean that the Titans get the #2 seed in the AFC, while a 1-2 record could mean missing the playoffs entirely.
The ambiguous deadline for a decision on fans seems to be sometime in the next week or so according to Nihill.
#Titans need to know within next 10 days about whether or not fans could be at any of the 3 games in October per team president Burke Nihil. Playing phone tag today with Nashville mayor.
— Teresa Walker (@TeresaMWalker) September 8, 2020
Just for reference, the Titans announced that fans would miss the home opener 33 days before that game was scheduled to take place. Right now we are 26 days away from the second home game of the season vs the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Let’s be optimistic and see what happens if everyone wears their masks and the Mayor decides to let common sense prevail.
How many fans?
If the Titans are allowed to have fans, it looks like that number will be capped at 21-22%, and since the stadium holds 69,000 we know that means 14,500-15,200 fans would be allowed in.
That may not seem like a lot, but it is obviously much better than zero. To help show how many fans this actually is, the max capacity for a Nashville Predators game is 17,159 and this reduced number is still more than the average attendance for the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins.
Again, anything is better than zero, and when you look at the actual numbers and consider that should mean very few opposing fans in the stands if any, it is a solid amount in these uncertain times. Unfortunately, we have to hope that Mayor John Cooper makes the smart decision and that hasn’t been the case.
But don’t worry, if Cooper decides that Nissan Stadium can’t open in October, then there is plenty to do in Nashville like ride around, crammed on a pedal tavern or go down Broadway and jump into a packed bar to hear some live music (social distance not required).
Another look at Broadway tonight. https://t.co/wHWuG95mFT pic.twitter.com/eAadz29ddg
— FoxNashville (@FOXNashville) September 5, 2020