Will the Philadelphia Flyers welcome fans to games in 2021?

Now that the “When will the next season start?” question is out of the way, one very important question still remains – will the Flyers allow fan attendance to games this upcoming season at the Wells Fargo Center?

The Flyers are less than a month away from opening the 2021 NHL regular season at home versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it obviously will look a lot different this year at the Wells Fargo Center. When the NHL announced they finally finalized plans for the 2021 season to begin in early January, they left one thing up to the teams – fan attendance.

The NHL told all teams in a internal memo that they would be able to decide for themselves, in compliance with local and state laws, if they want fan attendance – whether arenas will be at full capacity, half capacity, or no fans will be allowed at all. With some teams already formally announcing that they won’t be having fans in their respective arenas to begin the season, there’s still hope.

The league had said that they intended to work with teams to get fans in arenas and watching games at some point during the season. This may be a different story for the Flyers.

The City of Philadelphia implemented new guidelines in a direct response to the ongoing health crisis the city is facing. As such, fans are not permitted in sporting events and this includes all sporting events hosted at the Wells Fargo Center.

Earlier this year, during the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles home games, the team allowed fans for three games before the city came down on them with new restrictions that forced them to stop allowing fans in the stadium.

The restrictions that prohibit mass crowd gatherings and gatherings at sporting events don’t appear as if they will be lifted anytime in the near future, so it is entirely possible the Flyers will not allow fans at home games at any point during the season – making it potentially another bad year for the team in terms of finances.