The Utah Jazz were already among only a handful of teams allowing fans to attend games this season. On Monday evening, the organization announced that fan attendance at games is set to increase.
Beginning with Tuesday night’s game at Vivint Arena against the Detroit Pistons, the Jazz will open the upper bowl for “socially distanced pod seating,” which will increase overall game capacity to 3,902 per game.
The Jazz had previously been allowing a maximum of 1,500 fans in the lower bowl, plus several hundred more on the suite level.
Only nine of the NBA’s teams are presently allowing fans in arenas, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, though others have pledged to adjust their attendance policies based on trends with COVID-19 rates.
There fewer than 600 new cases of COVID-19 reported by the Utah Department of Health on Monday, though the positivity rate remained above 16%.
Several fans in attendance at the Jazz’s home opener back on Dec. 26 argued for the inclusion of more fans even then, saying they believed the safety protocols put in place by the team and the arena were sufficient.
Eric is a West Valley City native and a graduate of Granger High School and the University of Utah who joined The Tribune in 2003. He hoards rescue cats and guinea pigs, reads historical fiction, watches British baking shows, and obsesses over 1980s hair-metal bands in his spare time.