According to a report from Yahoo! Sport ‘ Charles Robinson, the Kansas City Chiefs are among teams that consider “pods” as fans (and if) fans may return to the stands for their 2020 home game.
No … we’re not referring to Chiefs fans who are space aliens – or even sending to containers loaded with regular Earthlings and loaded into Arrowhead Stadium.
While one of those ideas might be … interesting… at certain levels, Robinson explained that “pods” is simply the term used to describe groups of fans who are willing to sit down together to watch the game.
Talk to others #NFL teams, the buzzword you will hear a lot for in front of fans is “pods”. The goal is to find clusters of people who have made a decision to cluster together (while masking), and then distance the clusters from each other in stadium.
– Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) August 12, 2020
In another tweet, Robinson said the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys are among the teams that also see this idea.
And in many ways it makes sense. When the coronavirus pandemic first broke out in the spring, NFL teams began exploring ways to bring fans safely to their stadiums while observing social distance guidelines. The immediate idea was to simply reduce the number of people allowed in stadiums by half or two-thirds – and then simply place them in a way that no one is sitting near anyone else.
But it’s easy to see the problem here. While it is not uncommon for fans to watch games themselves, most come in pairs as groups. It’s just that married couples and families attend games and sit together – and in many such cases, these groups of people already live inside their own COVID-19 “bubble” – so sitting together would put them at a little extra risk.
Of course, some groups that participate in games do not consist of family members, but are instead groups of friends. Robinson’s report would suggest that teams consider leaving these types of groups together – if they so wish.
More details on how the Chiefs would implement this idea are not yet known. But the Cowboys – a team that plans to have at least some fans in AT&T Stadium for their home games – have released some details.
The Chiefs will not do things exactly the same way – but the Dallas Plan gives us an idea of what it might look like at Arrowhead.
The Cowboys’ plan suggests that the ‘pods’ for game day will be fixed – and fans will be asked not to hand over cards to people outside their group. Fans will be required to wear masks if they are not eating or drinking. Tickets will be 100% digital, and all financial transactions in the stadium will be handled with “touchless” phone apps. (The Chiefs announced this week that they will use a system called Tappit to make all Arrowhead transactions cashless).
Tailgating will be allowed, but only in designated areas of the parking lot – and with at least one empty space between cars.
With less than a month to go until the scheduled home opener against the Houston Texans on Thursday, September 10, the Chiefs have not yet announced when tickets will be available for one of this season’s home games. The team intends to host a limited number of fans for its home matches – but working with state and local officials has not yet established a maximum safe capacity for the stadium.
Investigation of “pods” is another indication that the Chiefs continue to cooperate on at least some fans this season at Arrowhead – and working on ways to make the experience as normal as they can.
