Chiefs Plan to Allow Fans at Arrowhead Stadium at 22% Capacity; Masks Mandatory

The Kansas City Chiefs announced Monday they plan to reduce the capacity of Arrowhead Stadium to around 22 percent for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Face masks will be mandatory for all fans attending games, and the team is reconfiguring the stadium into specified zones to limit the amount of interaction between fans in common areas of the venue.

Arrowhead Stadium can hold as many as 76,416 fans for games, so the new policy would mean admitting roughly 16,800 fans for the Chiefs' eight home games.

The team said it worked with the University of Kansas Health System to work out the best approach to allow for a reduced attendance. The Kansas City mayor, health director and EMS medical director all signed off on the plan.

Chiefs president Mark Donovan first said in July that the franchise was going to lower the capacity of Arrowhead Stadium for 2020. As a result, the Chiefs allowed season ticket holders to either receive a full refund or have their 2020 payment credited toward next season.

Whereas MLB is staging games at home cities in empty stadiums, the NFL has opted against issuing a blanket restriction on attendances. The Athletic's Daniel Kaplan reported in June the league would let individual teams set their own rules based on local guidelines.

The Chiefs will at least be able to collect a small portion of their typical game-day revenue, which can't be said of all 32 franchises. Some teams will have to close their stadiums off altogether.