What will a Houston Texans home game with fans look like? – Texans Wire

The Houston Texans wont have fans in the stands at NRG Stadium when they take on the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, but they could have the Texans faithful back in the building for Week 4.

Team president Jamey Rootes is monitoring the NFL teams that will be having a limited number of fans in the stands for Week 2, such as the Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts.

One critical factor is COVID-19 trends in the greater Houston area. If city officials or Harris County health officials believe the novel coronavirus is on an upward tick, it could nix any plans to have fans in the stands. Nevertheless, the Texans will need their approval. Should they get it, Rootes outlined what a home game in the new normal would look like.

In terms of the capacity, weve had to go from 71,500 to 15,000 as kind of the ceiling for us because thats all we can do and still be able to maintain social distancing, Rootes said. Theyre social distanced not from individuals, but in pods two, four, six. Groups of tickets that theyre together and then in all directions theres six feet away from them, so that as theyre at the game, theyre together in their pod, but theyre socially distanced from everyone else.

All of the seats in NRG Stadium are marked, and seats that are unavailable for fans will have zip ties around them so that they cannot be accessed. The team will also have personnel conducting sanitizing before, during, and after the event.

Another way the Texans are ensuring a clean, sanitary experience is with the installation of 500 sanitizing stations throughout NRG Stadium. Fans will be required to wear a mask and are encouraged to be socially distant and wash their hands.

If we do those things, weve proven, at least here in Texas, that we can do a great job containing the virus, said Rootes.

Another way the Texans are going to increase sanitary practices is by implementing touchless and cashless transactions; the Texans are doing away with cash for 2020.

Rootes thinks fans will appreciate the swiftness of the cashless transactions.

Said Rootes: The cool thing is when you do that, the speed of your transactions is going to go up dramatically. If people ever had a concern about standing in line at NRG Stadium, I think we wont have any of that.

All tickets will be mobile tickets, and arrival times will be staggered to comply with social distance guidelines.

We will have a very significant staffing level, probably comparable to what youd see for a sell-out environment just because we want to make sure this goes right, Rootes said. We know its not just about a football game. This has got to go well for our community to feel comfortable that we can get back to some sense of normalcy. We do feel an incredible responsibility to get it right.

If the Texans can get it right, they may serve as another example to the sports world that humanity can safely adapt its pastimes amid a pandemic.

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What will a Houston Texans home game with fans look like? - Texans Wire