Despite photos suggesting a sparse crowd on Thursday night, the 49ers say that more than 60,000 attended the home game against the Rams.
The team also distributed 97 percent of the 68,500 available tickets.
So why the images of a largely empty venue? The game started during rush hour in the Bay Area, and the team typically has a late-arriving crowd, along with six different club areas with open-air concourses from which fans can eat, drink, and watch the game.
Photos taken late in the game and posted by the team’s social media accounts suggest the presence of a much larger crowd, albeit with only a fairly narrow swath of seating in the background.
And so the reality is that it apparently will continue to appear (especially early in the game) that fans aren’t present for 49ers games, even if many are.