Panthers Team President Tom Glick Talks Return of Fans
For the first time this season, the Carolina Panthers will be allowed to host fans at Bank of America Stadium.
Last week, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper announced that large outdoor event venues are permitted to have 7% of the normal stadium/venue capacity starting October 2nd. This means that 5,240 total fans will be able to attend this Sunday's game vs the Arizona Cardinals. Although it may not seem like a lot of fans, it is a step in the right direction.
Panthers team president Tom Glick spoke with the media Thursday morning to talk about the return of fans and how excited he is to get them back in the stadium.
"There's been a huge amount of preparation over six, going on seven months, we've had a lot of help in the process. Had help from Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte, the state of North Carolina, the NFL has some amazing folks that we've been able to rely on, and our team internally. Our fans should feel confident that they will be safe...I'm really happy for our Panthers players and our coaches. They'll have the opportunity to have their family and friends with them and for many of our players and coaches, this is the first time that they will get to come and watch them work at Bank of America Stadium."
As you could imagine, the last several months have been chaotic and rather hectic for the folks in the Panthers front office to try and prepare for the return of fans. Glick says that it has been and will continue to be an ever-changing daily process.
"Once we digested what was going on with the pandemic and the impact on our offseason work and our adjustments to working from home, communicating on Zoom calls, we immediately shifted our focus to August - preseason games, regular season games, and how we would get ourselves organized. Those efforts have been led by Eddie Levins, our director of security and our infection control officer. It's been a daily focus since late March and we've continued to fine tune as we continue to prepare for different scenarios. We've been adapting and refining it up to today and will continue to over the next four days."
The Panthers are expecting to sell out the 5,240 tickets for this Sunday's game vs the Arizona Cardinals and future game tickets are already being purchased.
Fans will be required to wear face coverings inside the stadium and will not be permitted in without one. Fans will also be required to do a temperature check at the entrance gate, which must be below 100.4 degrees to enter the stadium. For social distancing, only season ticket holders will be allowed to visit the team store on game day.
The Panthers and Cardinals will kickoff this Sunday at 1 p.m.
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