The NBA has gone through this season with minimal attendance. While some teams have permitted fans from the beginning of the campaign and the rest have slowly let people back in over the course of the year, the pandemic has made it so there are pretty strict attendance limits with distancing and masks in stadiums.
With the playoffs around the corner, vaccinations increasing nationwide, and a light at the end of the tunnel due to the pandemic, NBA commissioner Adam Silver sees reason to be optimistic about postseason atmospheres around the league. Specifically, Silver went onto ESPN’s Keyshawn, J-Will and Zubin and said that he has reason to believe that the kind of playoff environments that the league likes to highlight will be close to fully back by the time the Finals roll around.
“I think it’s very possible that come July, when our Finals will be, you’ll see essentially full buildings,” Silver said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Shortly after Silver’s appearance, one NBA team decided to welcome fans back at nearly full capacity. The Dallas Mavericks announced that playoff seating will happen at near-full capacity, with about 15,000 fans allowed in starting with the team’s series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Along with the previously RTed story from the Dallas Morning News about capacity increasing to approx 15K, here’s the latest info from the Mavs on ticket sales for first round home playoff games pic.twitter.com/7nnjZdJ0AJ
— Mark Followill (@MFollowill) May 21, 2021
The league and teams have generally followed local guidance on these sorts of things, so hopefully, things keep trending in positive directions and teams are able to safely pack stadiums again sooner rather than later.