Packers Opening Door to 6,000 Ticketed Fans for Playoff Game
GREEN BAY, Wis. – After Thursday’s practice, quarterback Aaron Rodgers referenced some upcoming “exciting news.”
The Packers on Thursday night announced approximately 6,000 ticketed fans would be allowed into Lambeau Field for next weekend’s divisional-round playoff game.
The tickets will be available to season ticket holders who opted in this summer for the chance to purchase tickets. Those who opted in will be notified via e-mail this week, and tickets will go on sale at Ticketmaster on Tuesday.
Seats will be arranged in socially distanced pods of two, four and six tickets throughout the stadium. Prices, set by the NFL for playoff games, will range from $127 to $177, based on location. An additional number of guests will be in attendance, including invited frontline healthcare workers and first responders, as well as a league-mandated allotment for the visiting team.
If you’re not among those season ticket holders, you’re out of luck. Tickets will not be able to be resold or transferred, and all tickets will be mobile.
“Our players have enjoyed the energy provided by the limited fans we've had over the past four games. We’re looking forward to welcoming our season ticket holders to add to that atmosphere in the playoffs,” said Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy in an announcement. “We've seen our COVID-19 protocols in action and are confident we can safely add additional fans.”
As a test of its protocols, the team allowed the families of team employees to watch the last four home games, with frontline healthcare workers and first responders at the last two.
“A couple things that made me feel comfortable about this is, No. 1, obviously, it’s an outside venue,” Murphy said when the team began tiptoeing in this direction on Nov. 23. “There’s a big difference between outside venues and indoors.”
Even with people in the stands beyond the 6,000 ticketed fans, the stadium will be at less than 10 percent capacity.
Indoor suites will not be opened and face coverings will be required. While concession stands will be open, the transactions will be cashless. Tailgating will be prohibited.
The latest data from John Hopkins University via the NFLPA shows how COVID-19 has retreated out of the area. For the bulk of the season, the Green Bay area was the COVID-19 hotspot among NFL cities. On Nov. 1, for instance, the daily positive rate over a rolling 14-day period was a league-worst 104.9 new cases per 100,000 population. Now, the daily positive rate is 43.0 new cases per 100,000. That’s the eighth-lowest rate among the NFL’s 30 cities.
No local COVID-19 case clusters have been traced to NFL games, according to the relevant health departments in NFL cities. Through the regular season, the NFL had a total of 109 games with more than 1 million fans in attendance.
