Art Rooney II says he’s hopeful the Steelers will have at least some fans at their final six regular season home games, beginning with the Oct. 11 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. All NFL owners want fans at their games for two obvious reasons.
One, they want to extract as much ticket, parking, concession and merchandise revenue as possible out of this coronavirus-impacted season. And two, they want to give their team a competitive advantage, slight as it might be, by having the fans cheering on their players.
But there is a third, less obvious reason:
The NFL owners don’t want you to get used to watching the games at home.