Nashville to Allow Fans at Home Games

Capacity will be limited beginning Oct. 4 against Steelers and will increase to 21 percent for the second half of the season.

NASHVILLE – Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars will be one of a kind for the Tennessee Titans and Nissan Stadium. It will be the only one without fans in the stands.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced Thursday that a limited number of spectators will be allowed at Titans home games beginning Oct. 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The number will increase throughout the month and will be capped for the second half of the season, provided circumstances allow.

Attendance for the Steelers game will be limited to 10 percent of capacity, which is roughly 7,000 people, and seating will be limited to the lower bowl and club levels. Suites also will operate at a limited capacity.

Capacity will grow to 12.5 percent for the Oct. 11 against the Buffalo Bills and to 15 percent against the Houston Texans on Oct. 18.

The final four home games – two in November and two in December – could be played in front of roughly 14,500 fans (21 percent of capacity).

“We are thrilled to welcome fans back to Nissan Stadium and can’t thank Mayor Cooper and the Metro Nashville Public Health Department enough for their collaboration in making this possible,” Titans President and CEO Burke Nihill said in a release. “The health and safety of our fans, players and staff remains our top priority and we felt like a gradual capacity plan was the right call, knowing that we may need to be flexible as time goes on. We feel confident that our Safe Stadium Plan will give everyone a safe and comfortable experience as they return to our gates.”

Fans who attend games will be asked to arrive early and head straight to the gates when they do. Mobile ticketing and parking will be used to eliminate physical contest. Once inside, people will be seated in pods of up to six, face coverings will be required at all times and hand sanitizing stations will be available throughout the stadium.

More information on these and other protocols are detailed in the Titans’ safe stadium plan.

Franchise and city officials previously announced that Sunday’s home-opener will be played with no fans in the stands. The same was true of Monday’s 16-14 victory at Denver and the Sept. 27 contest at Minnesota.

That means Pittsburgh contest will be Tennessee’s first of the season before any sort of crowd.


Published
David Boclair
DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.