Albany, N.Y. (WBEN) - New York is making an exception to its restrictions on large gatherings to allow about 6,700 fans to attend a Buffalo Bills home playoff game in January as long as all test negative beforehand.That’s about 10% of the stadium's capacity. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the football team staff will only allow fans with negative tests to enter the stadium, where they will be seated distanced apart. Fans must wear masks once they leave their vehicles in parking lots until they return to their vehicles, and will be asked to leave if they take off their masks.
Cuomo, who had sent health department staff to study COVID-19 protocols at stadiums in other states, defended his administration's efforts to allow fans at the game at a time when more then 11,000 New Yorkers a day are testing positive for COVID-19.
He said the pilot program could be a model for re-opening businesses with rapid testing, which his budget director Robert Mujica said will be conducted in the three days before the game. Cuomo is directing his department of health to contact trace all 6,700 fans following the game.
The department didn’t immediately provide specifics on the pilot program, including whether the state has the resources to contact trace all the fans in the days following the game and if fans who were exposed to COVID-19 in the week before the game will be allowed to attend.
“We believe we are the first state in the nation to run this kind of pilot.
We believe it can be very instructive to us going forward," Cuomo said.
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker previously said he was looking into how to address the potential for a post-game surge because of fans gathering before and after the game.
Zucker and Cuomo urged all fans Wednesday to not hold and attend tailgates, parties and other large gatherings.
The Bills say approximately 6,200 tickets will be available for purchase on Dec. 31 to Bills Season Ticket Members that opted into purchasing tickets earlier this year. Season Ticket Members will be notified based on seniority.
Club season ticket members will receive an email from the Buffalo Bills with a set time to go online and select club tickets on Thursday, Dec. 31.
Non-club season ticket members will receive an email with similar instructions on when to go online to select tickets on Friday, Jan. 1.
The two groups will be selecting tickets from different inventory pools. Due to limited capacity, tickets will only be made available in certain sections of Bills Stadium, including the Sideline Club Seat sections, and the 100 and 200 level of Bills Stadium.
Tickets are not expected to be available for all Season Ticket Members, nor are they expected to be available for general public sale.
Tickets will be available in two and four ticket pods only. Only one pod will be available per each Season Ticket Member account. Should the Bills advance and host a Divisional Playoff round game and New York State permits fans to future games, those fans who attend the Wild Card playoff game will not be eligible to purchase tickets for the Divisional round.
Fans will be required to pay for their testing as part of their ticket purchase to cover all associated costs. Bioreference Laboratories is providing each test for fans at a reduced cost of $63. There will also be an additional cost of $11 for parking.
Testing for fans will be administered at Bills Stadium in Lot 4, two to three days prior to the playoff game. Instructions on the testing process will be emailed to the ticket holder by the Bills. Only ticket holders who test negative and can provide proof of a negative result will be given entry to the game. Test results will be sent by Bioreference Laboratories via a secure email.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says testing will not be at the expense of county resources. "The county will not be involved in the testing of fans."
The testing conducted will not be rapid style tests but will be laboratory PCR tests that will take time to complete. Poloncarz estimates tests results will likely take about two days.
If a ticket holder tests positive they can contact the Bills ticket office to obtain a refund for the cost of the ticket and the parking fee only. The testing fee is non-refundable.
All fans attending the game must bring proof of their negative test result either on their mobile device or in printed PDF form to gain entry.
"Every person will have to pay a $63 fee for testing and then there is an $11 fee for parking," said Poloncarz.