All professional sports leagues in the United States have adapted to the Coronavirus in different ways. The National Football League (NFL) played a normal season but without fans in most stadiums, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) did a bubble, and the Major League Baseball (MLB) played a shortened season with zero fans.

These leagues have had to change things up because of the virus, which has caused watching sports to feel a lot different than they used to be. Fans miss their home games where they would be screaming and roaring the whole time. The excitement element is missing in sports without fans.

Players across multiple sports miss the fans and find it challenging to compete without them. Back when the Coronavirus hit, Lebron James said, “Obviously I would be very disappointed not having the fans because that’s what I play for — I play for my family, I play for the fans.”

Both players and fans have been eager to return back to what sports used to be. This raises the question, should fans be allowed to attend sports events during the pandemic.

Fans should be allowed into sports stadiums but with limited capacity. A lot of venues across the country are already allowing for this to happen. Stadiums like ArrowHead in Kansas City let in about 16,000 fans every Sunday during the 2020 season.

Any stadium that is big enough is more than capable of letting some fans in. Maryland is one of the states that aren’t allowing any fans into sports events. While it is understandable why these venues aren’t allowing full stadium of fans, they are all capable of allowing in fans at a limited capacity.

Opening up these stadiums for fans also creates job opportunities for the people who work in the stadiums.

Junior Ethan Cohen is a long-time New York sports fan and he wishes that states like Maryland and New York would let fans into their stadiums. “Every stadium is capable of safely letting some fans into their stadiums and I also think that it would be very encouraging for Americans to see fans in more and more stadiums,” Cohen said.

Allowing fans into stadiums would also be encouraging for Americans. We are gotten used to seeing sports games with no life in them because of the lack of fans. Safely allowing fans into stadiums would help bring back some of the excitement that sports are currently missing.

Sports haven’t been the same since the virus started and safely bringing back fans into stadiums could spark some hope in a lot of people, which is needed during these times.