Santa Clara County executive Dr. Jeff Smith called new state guidance that allows fans to attend professional sporting events in California “the worst thing in the world to be doing,” but the San Francisco 49ers want to work with Smith and county officials to bring spectators to Levi’s Stadium this season anyway.
In an interview on sports radio station KNBR on Wednesday, 49ers president Al Guido said the team plans to collaborate with Smith and county supervisors to determine ways the organization could safely host guests at upcoming games.
“We’ve had a great working relationship with the county and we’ve had a lot of dialogue since their announcement yesterday,” Guido told KNBR. “We look forward to continuing to work with them. We’ve worked together on complex issues, frankly even leading up to training camp and getting our guys back to playing games.”
California assigns each of its 58 counties to a tier based on its adjusted coronavirus case rate and the rate of positive tests in the county. Tiers 1 and 2, the most “distressed” counties, have an adjusted seven-day case rate of more than four people per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate above 5 percent over a seven-day period.
New guidelines released by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday would allow pro sports teams in Tiers 3 and 4 to host a limited number of fans at games effective immediately. Santa Clara County, which is home to the 49ers and San Jose Earthquakes, is in Tier 3, which shows a “moderate” spread of the coronavirus within the county.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Smith said hosting fans at games that could become “super spreader events” would be “unconscionable.”
“Putting large groups of people in a stadium is just asking for trouble,” Smith said. “It’s like a petri dish.”
Guido said Wednesday the 49ers have already developed a comprehensive plan that would allow the team to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within Levi’s Stadium and protect the safety of fans, players and team employees. The next step for the 49ers is working with the county to review and revise the plan to determine if it’s feasible to host fans this season and figure out how many the team would be able to welcome at each game.
“We would separate people out, they call it within pods, so you’d be able to buy whether it’s two or four seats, those would be separated out by aisles and distance,” Guido said. “The way we would do food and beverage is frankly you could either bring it in or have it delivered to your seat so we would remove the clusters from the concession aisles. You’d have parking spaces that would be socially distanced and separated out, no tailgating.”
In a hypothetical scenario in which Santa Clara County changed its stance and permitted the 49ers to host fans, Guido also said they would perform temperature checks on all visitors, require a signed health questionnaire and evaluate a staggered entry to the stadium to avoid having fans congregate while waiting in line.
Guido noted that California guidelines would currently allow the 49ers to fill Levi’s Stadium at 20% capacity, but the team would start by filling a smaller percentage of its seats. With the first eight-to-10 rows of the stadium blocked off to create additional distance between the playing field and its stands, the 49ers would be working from an already reduced capacity.
The team may start by exploring the idea of allowing spouses and relatives of players, coaches and team personnel to attend games, which has been restricted by Santa Clara County so far. Guido hinted that successfully welcoming close relatives of players and coaches in a safe way may help convince local health officials the 49ers would be well equipped to gradually increase the number of spectators allowed into Levi’s Stadium.
The 49ers have four remaining home games during the regular season, but won’t play again in Santa Clara until Thursday, Nov. 5 when they host the Green Bay Packers. Guido remains uncertain as to whether the 49ers will be allowed to welcome any guests this season, but plans are already in the works and he’s optimistic that despite Smith’s comments, local officials in Santa Clara County will listen to what the 49ers present.
