The Denver Broncos will be allowed to have a limited number of fans at Empower Field at Mile High starting with their Week 3 home game against Tom Brady and Tampa Bay, Gov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday afternoon.
Polis’ announcement came at the Governor’s Residence alongside Brittany Bowlen, the team’s vice president of strategic initiatives who is also leading the Broncos’ COVID task force. The governor said 5,700 fans will be allowed to attend the Week 3 home game against Tampa Bay, with the crowd mostly consisting of season-ticket holders. That comes out to 7.49% of the stadium’s capacity (76,125).
“There’s certainly the opportunity to look at additional fans a few weeks later (on Oct. 18 against Miami),” Polis said.
The Broncos released details for the ticketing and seating procedures for the Tampa Bay game:
- For single-game tickets and parking passes, all Broncos season-ticket holders will be automatically entered into a weighted lottery based on priority. The on-sale date will be next week.
- Seats will be sold in “pods” of 1-6 tickets and sections will be separated into smaller groups with designated entry, concession and restroom areas.
- Suite seating will have a limited capacity and be available first to current premium members.
- Fans will be required to attend the game with known family members or friends.
- For fans who are selected in the lottery but do not wish to buy single-game tickets, no action is required.
- A maximum of 175 people will be seated in selected sections.
- All concession stands will be cashless.
- All fans will be required to wear face coverings when on stadium grounds.
- Tailgating will not be permitted.
While coach Vic Fangio has been prepping the Broncos to play home games without a crowd — as Denver will do on Monday Night Football in their season opener against the Titans next week — the team worked for the past three months on their plan to include fans. That included partnerships with the Governor’s office as well as the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
“Fans are a big part of our team — they bring our entire building to life,” Bowlen said.
Bowlen also thanked the community for doing its part to provide an opportunity for the Broncos to host fans in 2020, even if the stadium “will look and feel very different this year.”
“Our organization is hopeful this is the start to gradually increasing fans at Broncos games this season, but we understand that it takes the entire community, both on game days and in our daily lives, to do our part,” Bowlen said. “We remain committed to partnering with Gov. Polis and the state to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”
As of Monday, 25 teams had announced they would not have fans in attendance for at least the first home game. Washington and Las Vegas have already decided to not allow fans for the entire season.
Kansas City, which hosts Thursday night’s NFL season opener against Houston, is just one of four teams that have chosen to allow limited fan attendance. The Chiefs planned to distribute approximately 16,000 tickets for their opener.
Jacksonville has set a capacity of 17,000 for its game Sunday against Indianapolis, the Colts will let in 2,500 fans for their Week 2 home opener against Minnesota, and Miami will allow 13,000 fans to attend its Week 2 home opener against Buffalo.
Polis said the “pod” model the Broncos are using “can really be a template for other types of events,” while dismissing the notion it was a comparable event to the “Stop the COVID Chaos” rally held at Bandimere Speedway on Sept. 1 that resulted in a lawsuit against the racetrack.
“Effectively, it’s not a big event with everybody together in the stadium — it’s a series of events that effectively follow under the guideline of 175 people or less,” Polis said. “It’s like a number of different groups of 175 that are there. That would allow for the groups that have an outbreak for there to be contract tracing and notification of others in that group, which is very hard to do if you had 1,000 or 10,000 people in one group.”
Polis cautioned that even with fans being allowed at Empower Field, those who are at higher risk for contracting the virus should be cautious.
“If you’re in your late 70s, or have some preexisting conditions, you are going to want to think twice about attending these games in person,” he said.
On July 15, the Broncos informed season-ticket holders of their plans for a reduced capacity home schedule, with account holders getting first priority for single-game tickets and parking passes. Season-ticket holders not interested in attending games were given the option of a full refund or a credit rolled over to 2021.
The Broncos and Stadium Management Co. also previously announced that face coverings will be required for fans in attendance. The stadium will feature cashless concession options, touchless bathroom fixtures, sanitation stations and the latest air purification technology.
