It appears the first time the Pittsburgh Steelers will play in front of fans will be Week Four against the Tennessee Titans. The team announced they will have a limited capacity crowd starting the team’s October 4th game.
According to Erik Bacharach, a 10% crowd will be admitted to Nissan Stadium when the Steelers come to town. That will work out to about 6900 fans for the Week Four contest.
Pittsburgh played in front of empty seats on Monday night against the New York Giants. Sunday’s home opener will also be without fans and week three at Heinz Field versus Houston also won’t have a crowd. While the Steelers have publicly remained hopeful to have fans for home games later in the season, the odds are more likely neither PA team – Steelers nor Eagles – will have any fans in attendance this season.
The NFL has allowed teams without fans to pump in crowd noise at 70 decibels. Monday’s game against the Giants didn’t feel a lot different watching it, though it’s a drastically different experience for those who are playing it.
After the Week Four game, the next best chance for the Steelers to play in front of fans may come Week Seven against Baltimore. If not, then they’re likely to see a crowd the following week when they travel to Jerry’s World to take on the Cowboys. Dallas plans to have 25% capacity for its home opener this weekend.
