Falcons Slash Seating Availability At Stadium For Coming Season

ATLANTA, GA — Less than a third of the seats at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be available to Atlanta Falcons’ fans for the 2020 season — that is, if there is a 2020 season.

Falcons management informed season-ticket holders Wednesday that it plans to cut seating capacity for its home games to less than 30 percent “in keeping with state and local requirements” to slow spread of the coronavirus.

With only 10,000 to 20,000 seats available for each game, most fans without season tickets will be left out in the cold. The stadium normally holds about 72,000 fans for each Falcon game.

“It’s not the year to take care of all our fans at every game unfortunately,” Arthur Blank said to the The Atlanta Business Chronicle. “All we can do is deal with the hand that we were dealt and try to accommodate our fans the best way possible.”

The Falcons will feel the pain as well. According to the ticket search engine Ticket IQ as reported by the Chronicle, if the Falcons play their eight home games with about 18,000 fans per game, the estimated ticket market value loss would be just over $191 million.

Will the Falcons add more seats later in the season? Maybe.

“Any future increase in (stadium) capacity will be determined by the NFL with guidance from the CDC,” the Falcons said in a statement posted to the team website.

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