The NFL is close to finalizing its plan for artificial crowd noise to be played in stadiums during games in 2020.
NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent said the league has produced an audio track of crowd noise to be sent to every stadium. The league will mandate a maximum decibel level the track can be played at. Stadiums that do have fans will still be allowed to use the track if the team wants to.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday he does not see this as a competitive disadvantage for anyone.
“We do not believe it is,” Goodell said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “We do not see that. We obviously have varying capacity throughout the league. From our standpoint, we want to invite our fans in, if we can do it safely and if we can do it with the full support of public health officials.”
Some coaches have voiced concerns about the fairness of the league’s incohesive fan policy. The decision to allow all stadiums to use the audio track is probably an attempt to minimize that criticism. We won’t really know if it works or not until we see it in action.
