San Francisco 49ers announce no fans vs. Cardinals in Week 1

The seemingly inevitable has been confirmed: The Arizona Cardinals’ first game of the 2020 season will be played inside an empty stadium.

The Cardinals’ Week 1 contest at the San Francisco 49ers will not be open to any fans, the 49ers announced Tuesday, “due to the continuing COVID-19 health emergency and accompanying government restrictions.”

Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said Monday he was told there would be artificial crowd noise at games.

“We’ve been told there will be a certain track at a certain decibel level at this point and I think they’re still working through that,” Kingsbury said. “That’s been my concern: Being able to operate and communicate with whatever decibel level that is.

“The good thing for us is having training camp here inside our stadium. That’s what it’ll look like and so we’re becoming accustomed to that and having the crowd noise going and trying to get adjusted. It’s kind of like gameday every day during camp. I think having that familiarity is going to help us, hopefully.”

A statement from the 49ers organization said it would work with state and county officials regarding the possibility of having fans at games later in the season.

No announcements have been made about the Cardinals’ home, State Farm Stadium, and whether it will host fans this season.

“I’m hopeful that as the season progresses that more and more fans will be allowed to come to games and we can try to get some normalcy in those stadiums,” he said. “That obviously remains to be seen.

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