With no followers allowed at Ford Area for at the very least one other month as a result of coronavirus pandemic, the Detroit Lions laid off a portion of their business-side employees this week.

The precise variety of job cuts is unknown, and the Lions declined to say what % of their roughly 300-person non-football work power was impacted by the layoffs.

“In line with organizational coverage, we won’t be issuing touch upon inner enterprise issues,” the workforce stated in an announcement to the Free Press.

Ford Area, house to the Detroit Lions, is seen earlier than drills at follow, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in Detroit.

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The cuts got here in the course of the workforce’s bye week, and fewer than seven days after the group confirmed that followers won’t be allowed to attend video games at Ford Area till at the very least Nov. 15.

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The Lions and plenty of NFL groups have confronted substantial income losses this season attributable to COVID-19 restrictions on crowd sizes and the security measures put in place at their practices services and stadiums.

The Lions transformed their Allen Park follow facility this summer season to adjust to NFL mandates on social distancing, and so they expanded coaches cubicles, modified locker rooms and added plexiglass limitations and touchless taps all through Ford Area.

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Whereas NFL groups share a big pool of nationwide income generated largely from huge media rights offers — each workforce obtained $296 million in nationwide income this yr — Lions president Rod Wooden advised Crain’s Detroit earlier than the season that the workforce generates about $60 million yearly by way of ticket gross sales.

Up to now, the Lions have performed two house video games with out followers. They will not have followers at their Nov. 1 sport in opposition to the Indianapolis Colts, and within the unlikely occasion that followers return later within the season, it is going to be at a vastly diminished capability.

Lions gamers huddles earlier than a play in opposition to the Saints in the course of the first half at Ford Area on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020.

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“The enterprise, I believe, is ready up so to climate this possibly higher than among the different sports activities due to the construction of how we share income and the way we share the income within the type of the wage cap with the gamers,” Wooden advised the Free Press final month. “However I’ve no street map for tips on how to cope with this, neither does anyone else, so every thing we’re doing is you’re making selections primarily based upon what you realize right now.”

On the sphere, the Lions are off to a disappointing 1-Three begin, dropping video games in opposition to the Chicago Bears, Inexperienced Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints regardless of holding double-digit leads in all three video games.

[ Lions bye week restrictions part of new normal in NFL: ‘Totally sucks’ ]

They’re tied for final place within the NFL North, however play 5 of their subsequent seven video games in opposition to groups with dropping information, together with in opposition to the Jacksonville Jaguars subsequent week.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Observe him on Twitter @davebirkett. The Free Press has began a new digital subscription mannequin. This is how one can acquire entry to our most unique Lions content material.

This text initially appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions minimize jobs on enterprise facet as workforce struggles on subject