The Browns are giving the “Dawg Pound” faithful a reprieve.
To say we’re heading towards the 2020 NFC with uncertainty would be an understatement.
For teams, the offseason has been completely virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With training camps and the preseason approaching, the league is working diligently to figure out what the next steps are to have a season while following mandated health guidelines.
One of the key questions that need to be answered is being able to have fans in stadiums this upcoming fall. According to reports, the Browns have already made their decision about what to do with their season-ticket holders in 2020.
The @Browns have become the latest NFL team to let season-ticket holders skip 2020 with no penalty for '21. That's 13 by our count. Three other teams have canceled season tickets altogether.
— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) July 9, 2020
The trend of games having little to no fans in stadiums started with the Ravens saying they are only allowing a certain percentage of fans in the building for social distancing purposes. After this, plenty of other teams have gone ahead and made this same decision that Cleveland just made of not penalizing fans that are not able to go to games.
All things considered, things are looking pretty bleak. The primary concern of the NFL is to make sure that a season can happen at all. All sports leagues are going through this same dilemma right now. The MLB seems to be ready to function without fans, and the NBA is obviously moving to its bubble format to finish the season.
Cleveland is already getting a jump on what could be inevitable. Being that season-ticket holders are the fans that pay the most money for their seats, the Browns seem to be prepared to sacrifice not having fans in FirstEnergy Stadium.
Anyone and everyone who is an NFL fan wants to have a season that starts on time. Because of health and safety concerns of team personnel, the league is doing anything in its power to keep September as the target start for the league’s regular season. With the entire sports world in limbo still, not having fans in stadiums seems to be more of a definite rather than just a possibility.