Atlanta Falcons Announce Plans to Have 20,000 Fans at Home Games for 2020 Season

The Atlanta Falcons announced in an email to season ticket members this week they will have a limited capacity of up to 10,000-20,000 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for home games this season. The stadium can hold up to 75,000 fans, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Falcons have to limit their capacity to keep with the state and local requirements along with the NFL and CDC social distancing guidelines.

The email included a survey that asked if they would like to attend home games this season, and if so, asked to rank the Falcons' first four home games in the order which they would like to attend. If limited capacity remains in place throughout the year, the team will then send another email regarding the final four games. The Falcons also informed season ticket members of financial options to provide economic relief during the pandemic. The first financial option is an extended PSL payment, which means fans who are currently on their 2020 PSL payments can extend their payment terms for one year. The second financial plan is second ticket credits, which means the team will apply 2020 season ticket funds toward tickets for limited capacity games with any unsued credits remaining in a fan's account as credit towards PSL balances or 2021 season ticket payments.

"It's complicated as heck," Falcons vice president of sales and service Don Rovak said to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. When you only have 10,000 to 20,000 seats, you need to be thoughtful. Is it going to be perfect? Absolutely not. But I do think we'll provide a level of care that our (fans) will feel, and we'll be able to justify it for this point in time."

Rovak went on to say the demand for tickets will be very high but is not sure what the exact numbers will be. He said the majority of fans "will get one to two games, max, out of the first four" because of the number of PSL owners they have. However, if fewer people are willing to go to games, Rovak said "the math might work out."

The Falcons are the latest team to announce their plan to have fans for the 2020 season. As mentioned by CBS Sports, the New York Jets and New York Giants announced there will be no fans at MetLife Stadium. The New England Patriots announced they are hoping to have 20 percent capacity at Gillette Stadium.