Fans to be allowed at Hard Rock Stadium
13,000 will be able to watch Dolphins and Hurricanes
MIAMI GARDENS – Life in South Florida took another small, partial step toward normalcy on Monday.
The Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes announced that they will allow 13,000 fans at Hard Rock Stadium for their home openers in the 2020 season, with numerous safeguards to try to limit the spread of COVID-19 amid the ongoing pandemic.
The figure amounts to roughly 20 percent of the stadium’s capacity of more than 65,000.
The Dolphins share the Miami Gardens venue with the Hurricanes. After the Dolphins made their announcement Monday morning, UM followed a few hours later. Hurricanes athletic director Blake James previously said his program would mirror what the Dolphins do.
“When we started the process back in March of exploring what a socially-distanced stadium could look like, we made the health and safety of everyone the first priority; knowing that if we felt that we couldn’t make it safe, we
simply wouldn’t have fans,” Miami Dolphins vice chairman and CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a statement.
“We’re happy that our elected officials recognize the attention to detail and diligence that we’ve put into creating a safe environment and that they made the decision to move forward with a 13,000-capacity stadium at this time.”
Garfinkel said Monday afternoon at the stadium that the number can change, depending on how South Florida’s coronavirus statistics trend.
UM hosts the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Sept. 10 for its opener. The Dolphins’ first home game is in Week 2 of the NFL season, Sept. 20 against the Buffalo Bills.
Among measures being taken, there will be socially distanced seating clusters, mobile touchless entry into stadium with staggered gate entry times listed on tickets and required mask-wearing for fans and stadium employees while not actively eating or drinking.
“If you are someone who doesn’t want to wear a mask, this isn’t the place for you,” Garfinkel said.
He added that any fans who are not compliant will first be asked by stadium staff to wear their mask, and if staff has to escalate, fans could be ejected from the stadium and have their digital tickets discontinued so they can’t return for future games.
“I think it’s important for the nation to see there’s a semblance of normalcy,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “There’s no reason why you can’t have fans when you do it in a very safe environment, and this is a very safe environment. It’s going to be outdoors. You’re going to have 6 feet social distancing. You’re going to be wearing masks. Everything is contactless. There’s no reason to touch anything.”
Said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a Monday afternoon news conference at Hard Rock Stadium: “I think having something to look forward to does give people hope. I think this is a good sign that the Dolphins are being so thorough about their plan.”
There will be no tailgating for the 2020 season, with parking lots opening two hours before kickoff instead of four. The stadium will go cashless for food service, parking and retail. Toilets and faucets will go from manual to contactless.
“What this comes down to is whether we, in South Florida here, are going to be compliant,” said Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert. “How are we going to govern ourselves?”
State officials have tallied 602,829 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, and Monday’s reported deaths were 72, a sharp decline from the record 277 coronavirus deaths reported on Aug. 11. The oneday peak for new cases was July 12, with 15,300 infections. Monday, 2,258 new infections were reported. Both deaths and new cases have been declining in the state in recent weeks, although Monday the number of hospitalizations was up.
Since early in the pandemic, Miami-Dade and Broward counties have been hotspots in the state. The stadium is in MiamiDade County, but right on the border with Broward.
While the plan has been approved by DeSantis, Gimenez and Gilbert, it received opposition from U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, who served as the secretary of health and human services in former President Bill Clinton’s administration.
“It is very difficult to open anything when you have community spread,” said Shalala, who was also former president of the University of Miami. “We still have community spread in South Florida. So the kinds of precautions that need to be taken are extraordinary, and I think it’s going to be very difficult to do. … There is no question that it’s risky.”
The NFL has no overall policy on fans in the stands at games for the 2020 season, with decisions left to the teams. Fifteen of the NFL’s 32 teams have ruled out spectators to start the season while the Dolphins are one of at least eight teams hoping to have a limited number of spectators, and many teams haven’t announced plans. Which safeguards to take for teams that allow fans are also left up to individual stadiums.
“I think it’s honestly ridiculous,” said Bills coach Sean McDermott, whose team plays the Dolphins in Miami’s home opener, to reporters on Monday, “that there will be, on the surface, what appears to be a playing field that’s like that — inconsistently across the league with the different away stadiums.”
Elsewhere in Florida, the Jacksonville Jaguars plan to operate at 25 percent of TIAA Bank Field’s capacity, about 16,791 fans. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still determining a capacity they will hold.
Within the Dolphins’ division of the AFC East, the Bills and New York Jets will not begin the season with fans in the stands, according to guidelines issued by state officials in New York and New Jersey — the Jets’ MetLife Stadium is in East Rutherford, N.J. The New England Patriots, which host the Dolphins in Week 1 will not have fans at games through at least September.
Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said Monday
he’s confident the Dolphins are motivated to keep it is safe as possible — and he has some experience smaller crowds.
“I played a lot of games in college with less fans than that, so I might be a good one to ask about that,” quipped Fitzpatrick, who attended Harvard. “I think just from everything that I’ve seen within this organization — the day to day — I know that they made that decision with everybody’s health and safety as the No. 1 priority. So I think I’m very comfortable with that and knowing that they’re doing it for the right reasons and they’re going to do it the right way. It’s huge for us as players to have some noise, to have some crowd reaction. It’s a big thing.”
The Dolphins’ said season-ticket holders will have first priority to buy tickets, based on how long they have been season-ticket holders. All season-ticket holders have the option to roll their 2020 payments into the 2021 season and retain all of their seniority, seats and associated benefits. The Dolphins also encourage season-ticket holders most at risk from COVID-19 to take advantage of this option and stay home this season.
UM also said seasonticket holders will have first priority for individual game ticket sales.
“Just because we are going to have fans in the stadium, doesn’t mean that COVID is over,” Gimenez said.