On September 20, the Miami Dolphins will face the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium. Fans will be in the stands, but things will be much different.
On Monday the team and stadium announced that a maximum of 13,000 fans will be allowed at the home opener. The Miami Gardens venue has a capacity of over 65,000.
All guests and stadium employees will be required to wear masks. There will be mobile and touchless entry points, and cashless experiences for food, parking, and retail. All lines and seating will be socially distanced.
Some changes will be noticeable before guests even enter the stadium. There will be no tailgating in the 2020 season, and parking lots will open two hours before kickoff instead of four hours. There will also be more points of entries and exits to prevent large groups of people, and staggered entry for guests with entry times listed on their tickets.
Fans will no longer have to empty their pockets while going through security. Instead, they will walk through metal detectors and go through a touchless security screening.
"When we started the process back in March of exploring what a socially-distanced stadium could look like, we made the health and safety of everyone the first priority; knowing that if we felt that we couldn't make it safe, we simply wouldn't have fans," said Miami Dolphins Vice Chairman and CEO Tom Garfinkel
The University of Miami Hurricanes also play home games at the stadium, but UM has yet to make an announcement.
