Speaking with WWL’s Newell Normand, Louisiana Assistant State Health Officer, Dr. Joe Kanter says there is a preliminary plan already in place to allow for small music festivals.
“A couple days ago, the State Fire Marshall posted some guidance that would give a frame work for some small festivals to operate,” Kanter said. “Up to 500-people for some festivals, which we haven’t had yet.”
Kanter, who aided in the crafting of the new guidelines, says he and other health care officials are nervous about the implications of the new set of rules, but, “with the numbers going in the right direction and doing well, it’s time to take one more step, so we do that.”
Kanter then mentioned the idea that putting 25,000 is just another step to see how it goes. If it is successful it could be a model to slowly reopening sporting events in congregant settings with everyone responsibly social distancing, maintaining cleanliness and wearing masks.
“We can’t stay at this model of restriction ad nauseam until we have a vaccine,” Kanter says. “I think we have to be reasonably comfortable with trying a little bit more, every two weeks or so. Otherwise, I think we’re going to lose the public on this if we don’t.”
Then when Normand made a point about the Superdome being so much more different than a banquet hall and judging both as an indoor room makes no sense.
That’s when Kanter stepped up with his revelations: “The Department of Health reviewed an analysis of reopening plans that was conducted, I think at the direction of the Saints organization and I think they had two companies that were helping them (Oschner and SMG),” Kanter explained. “The airflow was one part of that [report] but they talked a lot about the ingress and egress and how to control the entrants, how to seat people in stages, how to ensure crowds weren’t congregating in certain places, how to sanitize, it was a pretty comprehensive plan.”
“What would to me be the biggest transmission risk is not when people are seated down in the dome, watching the game. It would be when they are on the ramps, when they are going to the bathroom, when they are in concessions [lines].
Newell Normand has stated the Superdome is much more capable of handling the crowd of 25,000 than the near 100-year-old Tiger Stadium.
Normand says the Dome’s restroom facilities are much more modern and capable of being configured for social distancing to adequately handle 25,000 fans, whereas Tiger Stadiums bathrooms are ‘like a basement.’
This plan about the feasibility of the Superdome and its capability of hosting 25,000 fans for football games could be what is needed to bring fans back to the Dome.
