When will NFL stadiums be at full capacity? That’s the question on the minds of fans ahead of the 2021 season. Bucs owner and co-chairman Joel Glazer spoke with the media on Wednesday where he addressed this topic, and we might just be getting closer to that opportunity again.

“We’re preparing for normality,” Glazer said. “That’s our expectation. It may be a ‘walk before you run’ process, but as we prepare for next season. We’re preparing for all the excitement that comes along with it.”

After the first Bucs home game at Raymond James Stadium was played without fans, the rest of the team’s contests allowed a limited amount starting with 10,000 for their second home game, a 38-31 win over the Chargers.  That number eventually got as high up as 16,000 for the rest of the regular season.

Of course the Bucs got one postseason game in their own stadium – Super Bowl LV – and that had 22,000 fans in the stands to see Tampa Bay win the championship by defeating the Chiefs, 31-9.

Another aspect of the NFL that fans love to attend is training camp. Bucs fans were not able to attend last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet there is hope that they will able to go this year.

“We’re discussing all that right now,” Glazer said.  “As you know, the world is such a revolving and changing place day to day, week to week with the vaccinations, which are going very well. We are talking about everything that we’ve done in the past. We hope to get back to normality sooner rather than later. 

“We’ve kind of had like everyone’s had for the last year, it’s a week to week, month to month approach. We want to be respectful of the global environment, but we’re hoping to get back to normality as soon as we can. But at the appropriate time.”