New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will donate his ticket to the Buffalo Bills playoffs after his decision to allow the NFL team to allow fans to be at the stadium, which has sparked criticism and even a petition to ban it to attend.
He said during his daily coronavirus briefing on Wednesday that he would give a nurse admission to the Bills game on Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts.
“I’m going to give my Bills ticket to a nurse at Erie County Medical Center as a way of saying thanks and honoring all the health heroes,” he said.
PETITION PROHIBITS NY GOV. HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BUFFALO BILLS PLAYOFF GAME
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, personal attendance at professional sporting events has been severely restricted for months. The Bills could not have fans at the stadium during the regular season.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen spends the first half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins on January 3 in Orchard Park, NY (AP Photo / Adrian Kraus)
The team has not won AFC East since 1995, and Cuomo has announced that just over 6,700 fans will be able to watch the team return to the playoffs for a Wild Card game on Saturday afternoon. The normal capacity of the stadium is over 71,000, according to the team.
The lucky fans present will have to wear masks and a negative test for COVID-19 before the game – on their own.
“The football playoff game is outdoors, which is a much better situation with the spread of COVID,” said Cuomo last Wednesday. “We believe we are the first state in the country to execute this type of pilot. We think it can be very instructive for us in the future.”
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Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who set the record for passing yards in a single Bills season this year, said the team is “super excited” to welcome fans to the game.
“Please follow the directions and use your masks in the stands so that we can have you there the rest of the way,” he said in a video on Twitter. “Go on, Bills!”
The Bills will face the Indianapolis Colts during a Wild Card playoff game on Saturday at 1 pm Eastern time. Authorities said unauthorized use will not be allowed.
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Critics of the governor’s coronavirus outages launched a petition on Change.org asking the team to “ban” Cuomo from watching the playoff games. It has received tens of thousands of subscriptions, but it seems that it is no longer needed.
Cuomo said he would spend time working on his State of the State address.
Daniel Canova of Fox News contributed to this report.