49ers’ Bosa out with strained leg muscle.
The 49ers will keep fans out of Levi’s Stadium for their season opener against the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 13, the team announced on Tuesday.
In its message to fans, the team said it decided to keep the stadium empty in compliance with coronavirus protocols after ongoing discussions with state and Santa Clara County health officials.
While the 49ers are one of 20 NFL teams who won’t have fans at their home openers, they did leave the door open to the possibility they’ll have at least some fans at the stadium again this season. The team said it will evaluate options for future games in Santa Clara after consulting with health officials. If and when the decision to allow fans to attend is made, season ticket holders will have the first chance to attend.
“It’s disappointing but I also understand it,” coach Kyle Shanahan said via Zoom conference call. “There’s a lot of adjustments
that everyone’s got to make with how the world is right now. I totally understand it, but it’s not going to be that fun. I love having the fans in there. They pump you up.”
The 49ers will hold their first practice at Levi’s Stadium on Friday as sort of a dress rehearsal for Week 1 in terms of technology and communication. Still to be determined is the level of noise that will be piped in to the stadium, whether it will be music or recorded crowd noise. There are no exhibition games to iron out the details.
“There’s a lot of trial and error that you go through in a preseason game that we won’t be as patient with in Week 1,” Shanahan said. “It gives those guys a chance to do that, and hopefully we’ll have some clarity with the noise and stuff and we can experiment with how we want to do that.”
In order to comply with COVID-19 precautions, 19 other NFL teams announced they wouldn’t have fans in attendance in their openers; with plans for six other teams, including the Cardinals, still undetermined. Raiders owner Mark Davis announced his team would not have fans at any of their home games at their new, $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium this year.
The Raiders and Washington are the only two of the league’s 32 teams to announce season-long lockouts of the fans.
After San Francisco’s home opener against Arizona, the 49ers’ next home games are scheduled for Oct. 4 against the Eagles, and Oct. 11 against the Dolphins. The 49ers’ first two road games — backto-back contests against the Jets (Sept. 20) and Giants (Sept. 27) at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. — will also be played without any fans.
Certainly, it’s quite possible the 49ers and others will be permitted to have fans return at some point this season. But, as of Tuesday, there’s only one game on San Francisco’s schedule when fans are expected to attend. That’s for its Dec. 20 game in Dallas, where the Cowboys have said they plan on having fans “in a limited capacity” at every home game.
For now, the 49ers’ biggest NFC West rivals, the Seahawks and Rams, won’t have spectators on hand at home. The Seahawks announced they won’t have fans at their first three games at CenturyLink Field, but they’re hoping to have them at their fourth home game — on Nov. 1 against the 49ers. Of course, the Seahawks’ 12th Man might be reduced to the 11.25th Man.
Five other teams have joined the Cowboys in announcing they plan on having fans at their games: The Colts, Jaguars, Chiefs, Dolphins and Buccaneers. According to reports, the Colts will have the most fans at their games than team with 16,750 — or 25 percent capacity of their 67,000 capacity at Lucas Oil Stadium.