The Miami Dolphins made waves this past week when it was announced that the team will plan to host 13,000 fans at Hard Rock Stadium this fall at Dolphins homes games. The decision to host fans was not one that was made haphazardly, nor was it done without a lot of investment and work on the part of the Dolphins’ organization to ensure that Hard Rock Stadium is well prepared for a socially distant game day experience.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated took a trip to Hard Rock Stadium after the news came out and has shed some light on all that the Dolphins are doing to ensure that their fans will be safe but can also enjoy some football in South Florida.
In all, Breer notes the laundry list of changes that the Dolphins will be implementing this season, including (but not limited to):
- No tailgating
- Staggered ticket entry
- More gates for admission
- A smaller ratio of metal detectors to fans in attendance
- Sectioned seating
- Upgraded air ventilation (now hospital grade) in suites
- Orderly dismissal at the end of the game
- Contactless concession pick-up
In short, this won’t be your standard game day experience. But, as Breer notes, this may be the gold standard that NFL teams implement to wean back into fans in attendance amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“The natural question here, and one I had at the top of my list going into this, is how the road back to full stadiums will go from here. And to answer that, (Dolphins Vice Chairman, President & CEO Tom) Garfinkel went all the way back to the start of the process, in March, when he’d gathered team leadership and started looking to local government officials and health care professionals for guidance.
“They were consistent about one thing, and that was that it wasn’t likely that we’d have a vaccine or a treatment anytime within a year, at the earliest,” he said. “So the prospects for having a full stadium in the fall, from my viewpoint, looked improbable. Not impossible, but unlikely, given that information. So, OK, is this binary—full stadiums or empty stadiums? And then the question, is there something in between?’ Can we create an environment for people to come where they’re socially distant and socially present at the same time, and feel safe?
“And if so, what does that look like? And we got to work.” – Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated
With Miami’s home opener scheduled for Sunday, September 20th, we’ll see the fruits of Miami’s labor in less than a month.