Money trumps competitive balance.
With the NFL facing significant financial losses from games played without fans, the NFL will not be implemented a game-day approach that is identical for all teams, when it comes to attendance.
“Attendance will be a state-by-state, county-by-county thing,” an unnamed NFL source told Daniel Kaplan of TheAthletic.com. “It will not be a one size fits all.”
Which means that in some states, fans will be present for games. In others, not. And even though this will create inequities when it comes to crowd noise, that apparently will be acceptable because a one size fits all approach to attendance will result in no fans being present, for any NFL games.
The NFL remains highly optimistic that the season will be played in full. In some cities, there should be or eventually could be optimism that fans will be present to watch.