The Dallas Cowboys have one of the largest fanbases in the NFL, but those supporters have largely remained away from AT&T Stadium due to COVID-19. However, team owner Jerry Jones wants to see more fans attend upcoming games. He said that the large stadium is “particularly suited” for fan attendance amid a pandemic.
The 78-year-old made these comments during an appearance on 105.3 The Fan radio in Dallas. He applauded the team and the fans for how they have approached gameday attendance. “We do it safely, we do it smartly,” he said. Jones continued and revealed that his plan has always been to start out with limited fans and make adjustments throughout the season.
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“My plan was to increase our fans as we went through the season and move the numbers up,” Jones said. “We followed that plan and we’ve almost a third of the attendance in the NFL, the whole NFL in our games. I’m proud of that. Our stadium is particularly suited for airiness, openness, air circulation, and its borne out.”
The Cowboys currently lead the league in fan attendance. The team averages 25,750 fans per game. For comparison, the upcoming opponent in the Minnesota Vikings recently announced that they would not pursue having any more than 250 fans per game.
Similarly, the NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles had previously allowed a limited number of fans at the games — 7,500 total — but the organization recently announced a major change. Fans will no longer attend any games at Lincoln Financial Field due to new coronavirus restrictions in Pennsylvania.
Texas is currently averaging 9,842 new cases per day and recently topped 1 million cases. The state has surpassed the total number of cases that Italy had early in the pandemic. Texas is also second in the United States behind Illinois. Jones is aware of these rising numbers and he says that the team is taking precautions to avoid the spread of coronavirus among the players, coaches and other members of the teams.
“I really am being very careful,” Jones continued. “[I] never thought in a million years when this thing came out three or four months ago I just wouldn’t accept the fact that we were going to have to change our lives and think about not having some fans and think about not having a normal season, was unthinkable. Well, guess what? It is thinkable because we’re doing it.”
