ORCHARD PARK (WBEN) - For the second straight season, the Buffalo Bills are 3-0, having just beat the LA Rams in stunning fashion last Sunday.
The main difference between this year's start and last year's start, aside from a vastly improved Josh Allen, is that Bills Mafia hasn't been able to intimately share these wins with the team.
As Bills fans wait to hear news on any possible decision from the state, the NFL team 175 miles southwest of Orchard Park, the Cleveland Browns, have already opened two games to 6,000 fans.
"The Browns have, I think, created the safest environment possible within their control," said Daryl Ruiter, the Browns reporter for 92.3 The FAN in Cleveland.
The hope from many is that a limited number of fans will be able to attend a home game in Orchard Park in the near future, and some believe the October 15 Thursday night matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs would be just the game to welcome Bills Mafia back to the beloved stadium.
Of course, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz stated Wednesday that for fans to be in attendance October 15, a decision would need to come from the state by the end of this week. Poloncarz previously noted that social distancing during game play is not the main concern for health officials, but rather the entrance and exit points as well as bathrooms provide the most issues.
Ruiter explained how the Browns are handling it.
"They split the stadium into quadrants, and fans who have tickets are assigned to a specific gate," he began. "Fans are required to, similar to what we in the media have to do every day that I go out to cover the Browns at their training facility - I have to take my own temperature; I have to report that and take a questionnaire, an exposure questionnaire - they're doing the same thing with fans."
This puts a level of personal responsibility on the fans in attendance, which Ruiter suggested that at the end of the day, the Browns organizations can only do so much.
"I don't know what else the organization could do to make it a more safe environment," Ruiter said. "They can control seating pods and how fans are distributed throughout the stadium; they can control entry and exit points; they can control making sure fans are properly educated on the protocols and know what is expected of them. What they can't control is whether the fans are honest with the screening questionnaire, whether fans are really taking their temperature and being honest about that, so there are variables that are outside of their control."
As for other areas of interaction such as concessions and merchandise stands, Ruiter said the Browns have really tried to eliminate as much contact between people and objects as much as possible.
"The point of sale areas such as the concessions stands, merchandising booths, etc., they made the stadium basically cashless so that would limit contact, and they also put up Plexiglas as well to prevent face-to-face contact," he continued.
As for the in-game experience and atmosphere, the organization is running entertainment and music as if there were a packed house, and he even said the 6,000 fans make a decent amount of noise.
"Browns fans have done their best to make it sound like there's 60,000 fans in the stadium," said Ruiter. "You absolutely can hear them."
And there's no question if Bills fans are allowed into Bills Stadium at some point this year, whenever that may be, those fortunate enough to be in attendance will make their presence known.
