About 6,700 fans can attend Saturday’s playoff game, but they must test negative for virus./
About 6,700 attendees will be required to test negative for COVID-19
Testing is replacing tailgating in the Bills Stadium parking lot, with a limited number of fans being allowed to attend Buffalo’s wild-card playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday.
Before that can happen, New York state guidelines require the approximate 6,700 fans plus another 200 employees and members of the media first test negative for COVID -19 within 72 hours of kickoff. Each person must show their ID and proof of a negative test before being allowed in the outdoor facility, which seats about 70,000.
The tests will be held Wednesday and Thursday, and conducted by New Jersey-based Bioreference Laboratories.
The company is converting a portion of the expansive stadium lots into a drive-thru testing site. Tests will be done over 14-hour periods both days, feature 30 lanes to accommodate the number of people showing up, and have the results returned within close to a 24-hour period.
“We have approximately 150 staff who are in Buffalo to pull this thing off, who were arriving Saturday, Sunday, training and getting everything set up and ready to go,” Bioreference executive chairman Jon Cohen said Tuesday.
Though the company has conducted more than 10 million COVID -19 tests since May, including NFL and NBA players and staff, this will be Bioreference’s largest drive-thru event and the first mandatory fantesting program in the country, Cohen said.
The state considers the program a test run in granting the Bills permission to have fans attend a home game for the first time this season. Should all go well, the program has the potential of being used in opening other New York venues.
“Everybody’s focused on what should be the game and the fans and everything, but this is also focused on how testing programs like this help re-open the New York State economy,” Cohen said.
Though a Bills’ win would guarantee them playing at home again the following week, there have been no discussions as to whether fans would be allowed to attend a second game.
In Buffalo, there’s relief that members of the so-called “Bills Mafia” can finally see their AFC East champions in action up close. It will also be Buffalo’s first home playoff appearance since a 30-27 loss to Jacksonville on Dec. 28, 1996.
“It’s goose-bump material,” long-time season-ticket holder Barbara Babiarz said after landing two tickets. “I mean just the thought of being part of this playoff game as a fan when I couldn’t go at all for the whole season I just, there are no words to describe it.”
Receiver Stefon Diggs said, “I really look forward to it because we haven’t had fans all year.”