First Energy Stadium to Hold 12,000 Fans Going Forward For Cleveland Browns Games

The state of Ohio has given the Cleveland Browns the okay to double their seating capacity going forward. This will start against the Indianapolis Colts in week five.

The first two games of the Cleveland Browns season at home they were allowed to have 6,000 fans in First Energy Stadium. Not many when you look at it, as the 6,000 was split up on each side and end of the field. Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam sent a letter to the State of Ohio just about a week ago asking for the total number of fans to be raised.

Now, there will be 12,000 fans allowed in the stadium going forward, as of Sunday when the Indianapolis Colts come to town. At times the fans were able to make some decent noise with just 6,000, doubling that number will be a nice boost in home field advantage. The team will still be operating under 20% capacity of nearly 68,000 that the stadium is suited to hold on Sundays.

An interesting note is all spectators will be grouped in “pods” of predominantly 2-4 people with no grouping larger than 6 individuals, who are all members of the same party/group.

12,000 is about half of the number of fans that Cleveland just played in front of in Dallas, which was probably a bit much for the times we are in. 25,000 people in an enclosed space isn’t quite ideal. This is a smart move by the state for allowing it slowly to improve in numbers, if there are no outbreaks linked to the football game itself. This number could come back down in the future or raise, it just depends on the outcome.