Vikings will play in front of very small crowd in Week 2

A couple of weeks ago when we reviewed all of the attendance policies for the venues the Minnesota Vikings will be playing at in 2020, we mentioned that the Indianapolis Colts had planned to have their stadium at approximately 25% capacity for their home opener against Minnesota in Week 2. Since the Colts’ home field, Lucas Oil Stadium, has a capacity of 70,000, we were figuring that there would be roughly 17,000 Colts fans in attendance for that one.

Well, the Colts have clarified their stance and, as it turns out, the crowd is going to be much, much smaller.

The Colts have declared that the Week 2 matchup against the Vikings will include a maximum of 2,500 fans in attendance. That’s right around 3.5% of the stadium’s capacity. This still leaves the Colts as one of just five NFL teams that intends to have fans in attendance for their team’s home opener. The others are the Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, and Miami Dolphins.

I certainly don’t think that’s a big enough crowd to give the Colts any sort of appreciable “home field advantage” or anything like that. Frankly, you’ll probably still be able to hear individual hecklers when the Vikings have the football. But that’s still 2,500 more fans than the Vikings will have in attendance for Week 1 against Green Bay or Week 3 against Tennessee.

The Vikings travel to play a third straight AFC South team in Week 4 when they take on the Houston Texans. The Texans have already said that their home opener won’t have any fans in the stands, but have not yet clarified how their second home game will be handled at this time.