New York Jets and Giants games at MetLife Stadium will be empty until further notice, the teams announced in a joint statement on Monday.
Fans of the New York Jets and New York Giants will have to wait a little longer to make the traditional trek down Route 3.
The teams announced in a joint statement on Monday that any game at their shared home of MetLife Stadium will be played without fans in the wake of the ongoing health crisis. This announcement comes after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told teams that his 500-person limit on outdoor gatherings would apply to events at their East Rutherford dwelling.
“We support Gov. Murphy’s decision in the interest of public health and safety and, until circumstances change, both the Jets and Giants will play our games without the benefit of fans in attendance,†the statement reads in part. “Although we would prefer to have fans at MetLife Stadium for our games, we will continue to work with Gov. Murphy’s office and will provide updates if necessary.â€
Each team also announced that their training camp activities will not be open to the public this year. The Giants previously announced that they could conduct their own training camp activities at MetLife, which neighbors Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
Murphy’s decree is also set to affect Rutgers Scarlet Knights college football, per Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media. The Big Ten Conference recently announced that, if their season were to come to fruition, that they would revert to a conference-exclusive schedule, canceling matchups with Monmouth and Syracuse.
The teams’ annual preseason meeting is still scheduled for August 13, though NFL Players Association reps are currently advocating for no preseason games as a training camp report date of July 28 looms. Regular season proceedings are slated to begin with a Monday night opener on September 14 between the Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Jets and Giants are the first NFL teams to officially confirm that their games will be played without fans. Philadelphia city officials announced last week that fans would not be able to attend Eagles games at Lincoln Financial Field, but the team has yet to comment.
New York sports fans saw their first taste of spectator-free sports over the weekend, as MLB’s New York Yankees and New York Mets met for an exhibition doubleheader prior to the start of the 2020 season this week. Both Citi Field and Yankee Stadium have pumped in artificial crowd noise during exhibitions and intersquad scrimmages to simulate fans in the stands. The Mets took it a step further, allowing paying customers to place a cardboard cutout of themselves in the Citi Field seats.
In a Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags