Given the clear from Govenor Wolf and the PA Health Department, the Pittsburgh Steelers will play in front of fans for the first time this Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Team President Art Rooney II issued a statement moments ago, announcing roughly 5500 fans will attend the Week Four, Keystone matchup.
Here is Rooney’s full statement.
“We are pleased to welcome back our fans to Heinz Field this Sunday when we host the Philadelphia Eagles. We appreciate the guidance of our public health officials to make this possible.
Under the guidance provided by the Governor’s office, we are limited to 7,500 total in the stadium, which includes players, coaches, stadium staff, etc. Based on these limitations we will only be able to make available to our fans approximately 5,500 seats in the lower seating bowl at Heinz Field. Priority will be given to our season ticket holders who did not opt out this season. Seat selection opportunities will be based on a computer-generated random selection of season ticket holder accounts. Unfortunately, we may not have tickets available for all season ticket holders for this game.
All fans entering the stadium will be required to wear masks and maintain social distancing protocols throughout Heinz Field. Tailgating will not be permitted in the stadium parking lots. Additional details concerning game day operations will be available prior to the weekend.
We look forward to hopefully having more fans soon while still maintaining a safe and healthy environment at Heinz Field.”
As he indicates, although they can have a 7500 capacity, that includes players, coaches, staff workers, etc, cutting down the number of fans who are able to attend. These tickets will go out to season ticket holders who didn’t opt out of this season. Selection will occur through a random number generator of ticker holder accounts. Fans who do attend will be mandated to wear masks and socially distance. No tailgating will be permitted.
Western PA has seen a relatively low number of COVID cases. That’s reflected across the state of PA where they’ve kept cases at or under 1000 for most of the summer. Prior to this afternoon’s announcement, Mike Tomlin said he was eager to play in front of a home crowd.
“I know that as a football team, we will be excited if we have an opportunity to perform in front of fans in our home venue,” he said during his Tuesday presser. “They inspire us, and we look forward to entertaining them.”
