NEW ORLEANS — Saints Sundays will look much different this year. Though official guidelines have not come from the NFL, the Superdome is preparing for social distancing and decreased capacity.
ASM Global, the company that manages the Superdome, is running the numbers for a socially-distant dome.
“If we just took the six-foot rule and applied it on its face without any sort of creativity you would bring your capacity to 17.5 percent," ASM Global Vice President Doug Thorton said Thursday morning. "That would be about 13,000 fans in stands.”
But that is the worst-case scenario, with every individual fan staying six feet apart.
The Saints and ASM Global, with help from Ochsner Health, are running models to see what they can do in the 74,000 seat Superdome.
The models play out scenarios, to see how many people the Dome could safely seat at 17% capacity, 25% capacity, 30%, or even 50%.
In mid-April, Mayor LaToya Cantrell told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that, at that time, she thought no fans would be the safest option.
“No fans present… I think that is the best way to go,” she said.
But as New Orleans works its way through Phase One of reopening, the possibilities are open.
The only thing we know for sure is that things inside the Superdome will be different.
The NFL is expected to reveal its recommendations for the upcoming season at the end of June.
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