Seahawks announce first three home games will be played without fans

The Seattle Seahawks will not enjoy the benefit of their raucous fanbase attending home games at CenturyLink Field... at least for the start of the season.

In an announcement made on Wednesday, the team confirmed that the home games against the New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, and Minnesota Vikings won’t have fans in attendance.

“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult determination to play at least our first three home games (Sept. 20, Sept. 27 and Oct. 11) without fans in attendance. While CenturyLink Field has become the best home field advantage in the league thanks to the energy and passion of the 12s, the health and safety of all of our fans, players and staff remains our top priority. While we are hopeful that conditions will improve as the season moves forward, we will continue to follow the lead of public health and government officials to make future decisions about having fans in attendance.”

Washington was the original epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and at the moment there are just under 70,000 confirmed cases in the state. King County (where the Seahawks play) has the most cases at nearly 18,000.

Two of these three home games are on Sunday Night Football, so the amazing scenes that typically accompany a Seahawks primetime home game will give way to empty stands. Seattle has been the dominant force under the bright lights, but without the aid of fans to create that cauldron of noise, it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts home field advantage.

The earliest that the Seahawks could play with home fans is November 1st against the San Francisco 49ers. We know that their road game at the Atlanta Falcons won’t have fans, but there’s no word yet on what the Miami Dolphins have decided.