New Orleans Saints approved to have 3,000 fans for Sunday's Carolina Panthers game

Fans will be back at New Orleans Saints home games beginning this weekend.

The Saints and New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell announced an agreement Tuesday of a phased approach to allowing fans to attend games in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, with 3,000 tickets be distributed to season-ticket holders for Sunday's matchup against the Carolina Panthers.

In a statement, the sides said that if local health and safety guidelines remain in place and COVID-19 cases remain stable, attendance will increase to 6,000 fans for November games against the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons, before growing to 15,000 fans for December contests against the Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings.

Up until the week, the Saints had not been permitted to have fans, even in a limited capacity, at the Superdome due to coronavirus restrictions in the city.

But the team had what it called a "productive meeting" with Cantrell, Ochsner Health president Warner Thomas and other medical advisors on Monday, paving the way to Tuesday's joint announcement.

The Saints and the NFL previously had talked with officials in Baton Rouge about the idea of moving games to LSU's Tiger Stadium so fans could be in attendance.

With the Saints given the OK to have fans, the NFL now has 19 teams approved to host spectators from the general public at varying percentages of stadium capacity: Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Tennessee and Washington.

Information from ESPN's Mike Triplett was used in this report.