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As recently as late July, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy expressed some level of optimism that area sports teams, including the New York Giants, would be able to have fans in the stands at some point this season.
With Week 1 of the regular season looming, that optimism has waned.
During a pre-regular season Zoom conference with reporters on Thursday, Giants co-owner John Mara said MetLife Stadium will be empty in September and potentially for the remainder of the season.
“We’re not going to have fans certainly in September. I’m hopeful that at some point we can have them back in. But I have to say I’m not all that optimistic about that,” Mara said.
While the Giants may not be able to welcome fans due to the coronavirus pandemic, other teams across the league may. The concern is that the inconsistency will create an unfair competitive advantage, but Mara dismisses that as an unfortunate product of the times.
“In terms of there being fans in other buildings where we go, that’s just the way it’s going to be. We had a league meeting a couple weeks ago, I think I made the statement that we just have to accept the fact that this is going to be an unusual year,” Mara said. “It’s not necessarily going to be competitively fair in the sense that some teams are going to have fans in the building, some teams are not. That’s just the way it is, and we have to deal with it. Certain areas of the country are going to be a little more liberal about letting people in the building. That’s just something that we’re going to have to accept and move forward.”
Any way you slice it, 2020 is going to be a unique year in the NFL.
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