BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Whether the so-called "vaccine passports" will become the norm of society in the coming weeks and months remains to be seen.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced this week that all fans looking to attend a Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres game in the fall must be vaccinated.
But according to Dan Kaplan, a Sports Business Writer for The Athletic, don't expect that to become the norm around the NFL.
"I don't believe we'll see many other teams follow suit requiring full vaccinations for entry into stadiums or venues," he said. "The idea of the so-called 'vaccine passport' has become politically controversial and the reaction in Buffalo, you saw some of that. I think you'll see a different approach from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction like you did with capacity limits over the past 12 months."
Kaplan said that there may be one or two other teams or cities that follow suit. The move by Poloncarz on Tuesday also is unlikely to even place pressure on other municipalities to consider the action. Kaplan believes this because each state and region has taken their own approach to battle the COVID and that no states are following the New York-model to a tee.
"New York's very different from Florida and California is very different from Texas," he said. "New York has this Excelsior Pass that has been started by the governor and will be used to verify the vaccination process at Bills and Sabres games. That's a first-in-the-nation thing and I don't expect that to be a common app across states. It may be the only one we see in the country."
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday said it's too soon to say whether vaccines will be mandated for Bills games and said Poloncarz isn't "legally correct" by creating the requirement without state approval.
"You have to see where you are," Cuomo said.
"Things change so quickly. Where are you going to be in four months? I'll tell you in four months. If the immunization goes all right and there's no variants of interest and if, God forbid, there is not another virus or pandemic. I think it's early to make a decision months ahead."
We also reached out to multiple music venues for this story, though none wanted to speak on the record. New York is allowing 10% capacity for these venues. Because of the low capacity, the majority of venues in the state are not running shows.
