Drones Could be the Answer to Put Fans Back in Stadiums

Although many states across America are easing up on their quarantine guidelines, How will fans attendance work?

Although many states across America are easing up on their quarantine guidelines, there’s still a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to allowing fans back into stadiums for live sporting events. But one upstate New York company might have a solution. EagleHawk has developed a drone that sprays disinfectant in “large public and private venues” including stadiums and arenas. 

Sports Illustrated’s gambling analyst, Frank Taddeo, discusses how the use of these disinfectant drones can bring back fans and thus home-field advantage for NFL teams this fall.

Read the full transcript here: 

Bill Enright: Professional sports stadiums and arenas are looking for new technology and how to make it safe for fans to return to live sports this year. Let's bring on Frank Taddeo, our gambling insider here at Sports Illustrated, for his latest story for Gambling Today and the use of drones by professional sports leagues to spray down disinfectants to allow fans back into arenas. Frankie, take it away.

Frank Taddei: Yeah. Bill, as professional leagues and even minor league teams are planning a return back to action. This development right now of a drone being able to spray stadiums and keep it disinfected from these drones is an amazing development. A Syracuse startup called EagleHawk announced that it has developed a drone that can quickly kill the coronavirus. While EagleHawk usually specializes in drones that use thermal cameras to detect roof leaks in buildings, they've changed the course of their company. EagleHawk took a different approach once the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States in the month of March. The company pivoted and decided to remove the thermal cameras from its roof drones and replace it with a device that sprays disinfectant. It's marketing its drone now, Bill, to colleges, as well as major and minor league sports teams, arenas, facilities all around the country that says that they can push out their drone. 

They strongly point out that the spraying of a drone is actually safer and more effective than having employees manually clean the facilities by hand. This could be a game-changer, Bill, for all fans and bettors who are hoping for the return of sports. Even more so, it could lead to the allowance of maybe even reduced social distance fans in the stands at events sooner than anyone could have predicted. This is a huge development and this is something that could really help the return of sports and get fans back in the stands and that could be a great thing.

Bill Enright: Frank, we know Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross came out and said that there will be an NFL season, but he questioned whether or not fans will be allowed in. This certainly seems like a step in the right direction, as you mentioned, to have fans back in stadiums this fall. Great analysis, as always, Frank. Plenty more gambling coverage. You could find more of it from Sports Illustrated by going to SI.com/gambling.