UFC 261 – Full Capacity Crowd: The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that for the first time since pandemic they will host full-house crowd during UFC 261. The event will be hosted on April 24 in Jacksonville, Florida and will not have a limit on fan attendance.
The pay-per-view event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena will be open to a full capacity of 15,000, marking the first time that UFC has not restricted spectator attendance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena staged UFC first 3 events following a two-month hiatus in May. Those events were held without any fans.
Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry tweeted that he, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and UFC president White will “continue to demonstrate that Florida is poised to safely host signature sporting events watched globally.”
With a number of US states rolling back capacity restrictions at public events, UFC 261 represents another marker in professional sports in North America returning to a sense of normality in regards to fan attendance.
It remains hugely debatable, however, as to whether these moves are safe with the pandemic still raging. In Florida in particular, the trailing seven-day average for daily Covid-19 cases now stands at nearly 4,500, a figure that while less than a third of peaks seen there in January remains higher than many points during 2020.
UFC 261 will be hosted on April 24 in Jacksonville