GREEN BAY, WI (WSAU) — The Green Bay Packers have announced that fans will not be allowed at team facilities during their upcoming training camp and preseason games to help slow the spread of the novel Coronavirus and its associated disease, COVID-19.
The announcement came Wednesday from Team President and CEO Mark Murphy, who said “after consulting with local health officials and reviewing League and CDC guidelines, we felt we needed to make this difficult decision.”
The decision includes Family Night and the annual shareholders meeting. The latter will be held through a virtual conference call on July 23rd. The team says they do still plan a family night scrimmage.
Fan support has always been a traditional aspect of the Packers training camps, including the bike rides to and from the practice field by players.
Murphy added “we will miss seeing so many of our fans, particularly the young ones, during this exciting time of year. We will continue to work on the protocols and logistics in the hope that we can welcome fans back to Lambeau Field for the regular season without jeopardizing the health of our players, team personnel and fans.
“We ask our fans to help us in this effort by wearing masks and staying six feet away from non-family members when out in the community in the coming weeks,” he concluded.
Numerous other NFL teams have announced similar measures. Teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington have already notified season ticket holders of plans for reduced stadium capacity for all home games this season.
The number of preseason contests for each team remains unclear at this point. Earlier reports indicated that the league would cancel games in weeks one and four, leaving each team with just two tune-ups for the regular season. In the weeks since that report, both the league and the NFLPA have disagreed on the number of games that should be played with some players expressing a desire for no preseason games.
The official NFL schedule still lists a full preseason. The only early-season contest to be officially canceled so far is the Hall of Fame game between Pittsburgh and Dallas.
