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Are the Eagles at a competitive disadvantage without home fans? NFL commissioner says no

The seven teams that have announced they will be allowing fans in their stadiums for games are Miami, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Dallas, Tampa Bay and Cleveland.

There will be no fans at the Linc on Sept. 20 when the Eagles play their home opener against the Rams.
There will be no fans at the Linc on Sept. 20 when the Eagles play their home opener against the Rams.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

At least seven NFL teams will be allowing a limited number of fans to attend games when the season starts on Sept. 10.

The Eagles won’t be one of them, though owner Jeffrey Lurie said earlier this week that he remains hopeful they’ll be able to have “significant fans” for home games at Lincoln Financial Field at some point this season.

The seven teams that have announced they will be allowing fans in their stadiums for games are Miami, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Dallas, Tampa Bay and Cleveland.

The first time the Eagles will play one of those teams on the road will be the Browns on Nov. 22.

Asked Tuesday whether those teams that can have fans will have a competitive advantage over teams such as the Eagles that can’t, commissioner Roger Goodell said no.

“We do not believe it’s a competitive advantage,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “We discussed this very early on with our competition committee and with our clubs. We don’t see that.”

Goodell said the league never considered prohibiting fans in all stadiums like Major League Baseball has done. He said he is hopeful that most of the league’s teams will get the green light from public health officials to allow fans to attend games at some point this season.

“I believe we may be having a lot of teams that will start with no fans in the beginning of the season, but may evolve to [letting in] fans,” Goodell said. “Everyone is taking a cautious approach. We’re working with public health officials, and that will be our driving priority. We’re not going to go against public health officials.”

Former Eagles cornerback Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice-president of football operations, said the NFL has created audio that will be used in stadiums without fans. He said they haven’t finalized the decibel levels for that audio.