Following positive coronavirus tests for the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans, Florida’s governor granted permission to the Miami Dolphins to allow full capacity at Hard Rock Stadium.
Governor Ron DeSantis’ spokesperson stated that the decision is part of the state’s removal of COVID-19 stadium restrictions. Despite being granted permission to fill its stadium, the Dolphins organization will not rush to allow more fans into the venue and plans to maintain its limit to 13,000 fans for the remainder of 2020. Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel said:
“We’ll continue to follow CDC guidelines and put everyone’s safety first and monitor things as they go. Right now with positivity rates where they are, we feel that we can keep people safe in a socially distanced environment, which is our 13,000 capacity.”
Florida currently has three NFL teams, as well as a number of college football teams. In addition, Super Bowl LV is scheduled for February 2021 in Tampa and DeSantis expects the game to be held in front of fans. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars have not addressed their capacity protocol following DeSantis’ ruling.