The Dallas Cowboys are trying to make sure their gamedays look- at least partially- like they’re supposed to. And the league is ensuring that its stadiums will sound somewhat like the NFL on Sundays.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has expressed how important it is for his club to “put the show on” in this COVID-stained season. For the ringmaster-in-chief of America’s Team, that unquestionably also means having paying customers in the seats.
While many stadiums across the league have already vowed to play the regular season in front of an empty house, Jones has promised that AT&T Stadium will be open for business on Sundays this fall, to at least a percentage of the venue’s full capacity. Season ticket holders were supposed to get their first chance at claiming seats for Cowboys home games on Thursday.
Like so much of the rest of 2020, it fell apart in short order.
Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News has reported that the online platform used by SeatGeek “experienced issues” shortly after the sales window opened and was subsequently shut down, with ticket sales suspended until further notice.
“In reaction to COVID-19, SeatGeek built a custom ticket-buying experience that keeps fans safe and adheres to local and state safety guidelines around social distancing,” SeatGeek wrote in a statement. “Fan safety is paramount for SeatGeek and the Cowboys. While we are excited to pioneer this new technology, SeatGeek and the Cowboys made the joint decision to pause the on-sale until early next week to offer an improved user experience.
“We look forward to resuming the on-sale and helping as many fans as safely possible attend an event at AT&T Stadium this season.”
The Cowboys sent out an email of their own, just two hours after tickets were supposed to have gone on sale.
“We apologize for the technical difficulties with SeatGeek regarding the Dallas Cowboys single game ticket on-sale this morning and are working through these issues,” the team stated. “Rest assured that you have not missed out on purchasing any games for the on-sale. Once the issue has been resolved and is fully functioning, we will email you when you are able to go back online to purchase. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for this inconvenience.”
Fans who already own Cowboys season tickets will be allowed to purchase up to six tickets for up to three of the team’s eight home games this regular season. The seats will be grouped into pods around the stadium to ensure proper social distancing on gameday, and ticketholders will not be permitted to re-sell seats within a purchased pod.
It is not clear exactly how many fans will be permitted into AT&T Stadium during games in 2020. Jones has said he will follow state guidelines regarding crowd sizes, but has declined to specify a number prior to the Week 2 home opener. Texas law currently would allow 50% capacity.
But Gehlken also reports that there is some grumbling about ticket prices under the new system.
“On social media,” he writes, “some season-ticket holders complained Thursday about the ticket prices in certain sections. A SeatGeek spokesperson confirmed that four of the stadium’s 14 sections are priced higher than they were in 2019. The other 10 seat sections remained flat.”
AT&T Stadium may be at half-capacity, and other sites fanless, for games this fall, but the NFL’s venues will at least sound like they normally do… mostly. The league will attempt to emulate the gameday experience for the players, coaches, and TV audiences by piping in crowd noise during games.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the league will provide a recording of crowd noise “specific to each team’s stadium that must be played over the PA system,” whether the venue is hosting live fans or not. The league will also monitor the volume level at which the looped noise is played back, to ensure a stadium operator can’t use the sound effects to provide an unfair edge to the home team or unfairly disrupt the visitors during play.
Here’s the full memo from the NFL on the use this season of pre-recorded audio, which will be monitored by NFL Football Operations. Any person or club caught attempting to manipulate the league-curated audio will be subject to fines, suspensions or potential lost draft picks. pic.twitter.com/J7v7LYaxWD
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 3, 2020
“Per the memo,” notes Jack Baer of Yahoo Sports, “teams will not be allowed to play their crowd noise at a sound greater than 70 decibels, and their total output (think crowd noise while music is playing) cannot exceed 75 decibels. That’s roughly analogous to the noise of a vacuum cleaner and well below the triple-digit readings seen at stadiums of teams like the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell maintained just this week that the league believes there will be no competitive advantage for teams who have live fans in attendance compared to clubs who play in empty stadiums.
The Cowboys’ first home game is set for September 20 as they face the Atlanta Falcons. The team has not yet set a new date for online ticket sales to resume.
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