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The Buffalo Bills administered more than 5,000 COVID-19 tests in their stadium parking lot on Wednesday as they prepare to welcome around 6,700 fans for Saturday’s playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Bills owner and team chairman Kim Pegula told ESPN in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the New York state government insisted that all fans and staff of the game be tested if he were to approve the plan to give fans access to Bills Stadium for the first time this season.
The team added an extra $ 63 to the price of the match ticket to cover the cost of testing, and then sent meeting times to anyone who had tickets so they could be tested at the site of the stadium in the days leading up to the match.
“It’s such a great sports city, and this is our third year (of the last four) in the playoffs, but without a home game (playoffs) for 26 years, it’s really special for the community,” said Pegula said. “I’m amazed. Today we tested over 5,000 people and it went really well and we did.”
Pegula said conversations with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office had lasted all year, but video footage of Bills fans at the airport greeting the team a few weeks ago at her Denver’s return after clinching the AFC East title helped drive the decision.
“Seeing these fans at the airport, part of the thought process was, ‘If we don’t allow the fans, where are they going to go, and will it be safe for our community?’” , Pegula said.
The Bills have studied other teams who have allowed fans in games this year during the pandemic to try and figure out how best to deal with it. New York state officials attended a game in Pittsburgh earlier this year when the Steelers cleared about 7,000 fans, and state officials will be on hand Saturday to observe the procedures and how they work. Whether the Bills can have fans at their divisional game if they beat the Colts and advance depends in part on how Saturday goes.
“The state said, ‘You can plan (for the fans in a second playoff game), but there’s no guarantee,” “Pegula said. “They want to see how that process goes, in terms of wearing a mask, coming in, going out, all of that. So a lot of our messages to our fans are just to really follow the protocols in place.”
“Who would have imagined that you would be delighted to have 6,700 people in a playoff game?” Bills GM Brandon Beane said in a telephone interview Thursday morning. “But we couldn’t be more excited right now.”
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