Published on March 27, 2021

Since at least the days of ancient Rome, humans have gathered at a central location to watch feats of physical competition take place in a centralized public building. These days, at least until recently, there are hundreds of stadiums across the US and Canada that are used for not just sports and athletics, but also as major music, theater and variety show venues, drawing hundreds of millions of fans together in a single spot. The 2020+ pandemic brought an abrupt, but surely temporary halt to this ubiquitously human ritual. While we still don't know everything about how the virus spreads from person to person, it was clear that stadiums and arenas needed to close down for a while to help “stop the spread” and avoid super spreader events.

As municipalities across the county start to reopen, most sports leagues, concerts and individual venues are mapping out a plan to safely allow fans back into arenas. While various COVID ordinances and reopening plans are still in flux, it looks like we'll be able to go back to baseball stadiums, NFL arenas and go to a concert in the coming months. There are so many factors at play when making a personal choice to attend one of these events in the pandemic's waning days. Cities and states will have varying ordinances, certain locations might be experiencing a surge of the virus, and you also want to think about the venue itself: is it outside? Is the arena large and cavernous with a ton of square footage? How many people can it hold? We took a look at many of these stats to arrive at a risk assessment for some of the smaller, indoor venues in the US and Canada. We also added some of the “safest” stadiums in the US which all happen to be outdoors venues for comparison. The CDC says that outdoor events are much less likely to spread the virus. Whether it's “risky” or not to attend an event here depends on a lot of factors but we wanted to highlight these particularly small venues with big sporting events to help folks make an informed decision about attending.

Ranking the Riskiest Stadiums for an Outbreak

The data for these rankings is below so you can weigh each factor and judge for yourself.

Arena	City	Ft2 per Fan	7-Day Avg. Cases / 100K	Risk Rank
Scotiabank Saddledome	Calgary, Alberta	25	12	Riskiest
SAP Center	San Jose, CA	26	6	2
Little Caesars Arena	Detroit, MI	31	23	3
Amalie Arena	Tampa, FL	31	22	4
Chesapeake Energy Arena	Oklahoma City, OK	33	9	5
Gila River Arena	Glendale, AZ	36	10	6
Xcel Energy Center	St Paul, MN	36	10	7
Smoothie King Center	New Orleans, LA	34	6	8
Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	49	44	9
American Airlines Arena	Miami, FL	40	39	10
Barclays Center	Brooklyn, NY	38	38	11
Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	41	38	12
KeyBank Center	Buffalo, NY	46	27	14
Bridgestone Arena	Nashville, TN	44	23	15
Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA	41	21	16
BB&T Center	Sunrise, FL	56	31	17
TD Garden	Boston, MA	41	23	18
Pepsi Center	Denver, CO	35	20	19
PNC Arena	Raleigh, NC	37	21	20
PPG Paints Arena	Pittsburgh, PA	39	22	21
Amway Center	Orlando, FL	46	20	22
Spectrum Center	Charlotte, NC	41	18	23
Target Center	Minneapolis, MN	43	17	24
Philips Arena	Atlanta, GA	38	17	25
Quicken Loans Arena	Cleveland, OH	36	16	26
Toyota Center	Houston, TX	42	16	26
Verizon Center	Washington, DC	52	15	27
Scottrade Center	St Louis, MO	35	14	28
Nationwide Arena	Columbus, OH	38	14	29
Vivint Smart Home Arena	Salt Lake City, UT	37	14	30
AT&T Center	San Antonio, TX	40	14	31
T-Mobile Arena	Las Vegas, NV	37	13	32
United Center	Chicago, IL	41	13	33
American Airlines Center	Dallas, TX	44	11	34
FedEx Forum	Memphis, TN	44	10	35
Staples Center	Los Angeles, CA	47	8	36
Talking Stick Resort Arena	Phoenix, AZ	53	10	37
Wisconsin Entertainment	Milwaukee, WI	41	9	38
Bankers Life Fieldhouse	Indianapolis, IN	42	9	39
Bell Centre	Montreal, Quebec	37	8	40
AT&T Stadium	Arlington, Texas	39	11	41
Los Angeles Stadium	Inglewood, Calif.	43	8	42
Moda Center	Portland, OR	40	5	43
Chase Center	San Francisco, CA	39	3	44
MetLife Stadium	E. Rutherford, N.J.	25	47	45
Mercedes-Benz Stadium	Atlanta	28	18	46
Gillette Stadium	Foxborough, Mass.	29	20	47
Lambeau Field	Green Bay, Wis.	26	14	48
NRG Stadium	Houston	26	16	49
Paul Brown Stadium	Cincinnati	28	13	49
Mercedes-Benz Superdome	New Orleans	27	6	T-Best
Levi's Stadium	Santa Clara, Calif.	27	6	Best

 

SAP Center (San Jose, CA)

SAP Center, formerly known as San Jose Arena, is the home of The San Jose Sharks affectionally nicknamed “The Shark Tank”. The arena has an area of about 450,000 ft², which is the second smallest arena on our list. SAP Center has a capacity of 17,500 visitors to that space. The arena also plays host to other events such as WWE Pay Per View various concerts, all of which were postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Infections in the San Jose area continue to fluctuate and will almost certainly be different by the time a major event takes place there. Check out the current dashboard information from Santa Clara:

Current COVID Dashboard for Santa Clara County

Amalie Arena (Tampa, FL)

Amalie Arena is home to the Tampa Bay Lightning and also is the temporary home of the Toronto Raptors due to the Coronavirus pandemic. With both NBA and NHL seasons in full swing, there are several games being played at this stadium currently. A very limited number of fans are able to attend the games right now to fill the 600,000 ft² stadium with a full capacity of about 19,000 fans. But you'd expect that number to rise as the season goes on. We consider stadiums of this size, like most of the others on this list to be the riskiest since they're hosting multiple games per week in a smaller, indoor venue.

Covid numbers in Florida, including Tampa are always changing so be sure to check in on the latest numbers and guidance from Hillsborough county before you attend:

Current COVID Dashboard for Hillsborough County

Chesapeake Energy Arena (Oklahoma City, OK)

Chesapeake Energy Arena is home to the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder. The arena has seats for just 18,000 for basketball and about 15,000 for hockey games. It's a little smaller than some of the other arenas on our list at just 586,000 ft² and there are some narrow hallways throughout the stadium to thoughtfully consider as you try to maintain social distance. They aren't allowing any fans this season so hopefully COVID is under control by the start of the next season at the end of the 2021.

Current COVID Dashboard for Oklahoma County

Little Caesar's Arena (Detroit, MI)

Two sports teams make their homes at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit. The Pistons and the Red Wings, both major teams in their respective leagues, play their home games here with a max capacity of 20,000 fans in the stands. In 2021 we'll surely continue to see a reduced capacity at all stadiums but at 650,000 ft² it's quite a bit larger than some of the arenas mentioned above. With two major sports teams, there will likely be more folks coming through the stadium throughout the year so be sure to check out the latest COVID information for Detroit and abide by local ordinances if you decide to attend a game at Little Caesar's Arena this year.

Current COVID Dashboard for Wayne County

Smoothie King Center (New Orleans, LA)

Smoothie King Center is host to the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans. There are also several concerts scheduled for 2021 along with those that were cancelled in 2020. Its size of about 571,000 ft² is a bit smaller than most of the other arenas mentioned here. It does have the lowest capacity (16,800) of any of the other arenas we're highlighting so that should give you more square footage per person. Almost 3000 fans are allowed into Smoothie King center for games as of now but we expect that number to increase as COVID numbers drop.

COVID case counts in the LA County area have been falling as of late but be sure to keep an eye on those numbers to stay informed.

Current COVID Dashboard for LA County

Gila River Arena (Glendale, AZ)

The Arizona Coyotes have called Gila River Arena their home since 2003. It has seating capacity of about 17,000 for hockey but up to 19,000 for concerts. This arena is hosting about 3,200 fans per game right now so there's a lot of room to social distance for the moment. But as we start to see more fans in attendance, it becomes critical to keep your distance, wear your mask and stay hygienic because a smaller arena like Gila River, indoors and an area of 612,000 ft² is one of the smaller venues in the US where this many fans are gathering.

Current COVID Dashboard for Maricopa County

Xcel Energy Arena (St Paul, MN)

Xcel Energy Center has an average capacity for an arena like this one, about 18,000 fans. It has four levels so fans can separate that way over 650,000 ft², in total. It's one of the larger stadiums on our list but still has a few enclosed areas that we wouldn't recommend congregating in. The Minnesota Wild will host 3000 fans next month, as long as COVID numbers stay low. But it makes our list due to its relatively small size, while hosting major sporting events.

Current COVID Dashboard for Ramsey County

Scotiabank Saddledome (Calgary, AB)

Heading up to Canada for a hockey game? The Scotiabank Saddledome is the second smallest arena of its type we could find at 474,000 ft² and a capacity of almost 20,000. That's a quite low, 25 ft² per person in the arena compared to 36 or 38 for other arenas on this list. The arena will host fans soon but they're not sure just how many yet. COVID case counts across Alberta have ticked up recently so keep an eye on the latest developments there if you're thinking of going to a game here.

Current COVID Dashboard for Alberta

Methodology & Other Considerations for Stadium Safety

In choosing the above stadiums for our list we primarily considered an arena's: square footage, capacity and a look at the severity of COVID cases in the surrounding county. All of these figures could change as the virus continues this year and stadiums do their best to change what they can about their interiors. There is a pile of other factors to consider as well, when choosing to go to a stadium of any kind this year.

Other factors to consider when thinking about the safety of an arena during a pandemic:

• Imposed capacity limits for COVID
• Masking regulations at the time of the event
• Ceiling height & updated HVAC equipment
• Your personal and family health conditions
• What location fans are arriving from

The above “risky” stadiums are particularly worrisome due to their relatively low square footage but some of that can be mitigated by limiting the number of fans that can attend a single game, using masks ubiquitously and implementing proper COVID precautions throughout the arena, as all of the above arenas say they are doing. This list has taken hard facts into consideration but our main goal here is to get folks thinking about these variables and their own behavior before attending a major event in an enclosed space.

 

Sources: Wikipedia, The New York Times, CDC.gov
COVID Data current as of 3/23/21