Big programs realize they can't let 100,000 people watch football together. But who has to stay home?
When the coronavirus pandemic shut down American sports in March, college football had the benefit of time. The season doesn't start until about Labor Day, and many schools optimistically forged ahead as if their game days would be business as usual.
But today, the season is just two months away. The virus is surging strongly, especially in places, like the South, where college football is king. University administrators are coming to grips with an unhappy reality: the biggest stadiums in the U.S. are going to look pretty lonely on Saturday afternoons.
That raises a very uncomfortable question for universities: how to decide which fans will make the cut if stadium capacity is limited. The answer is not straightforward, as colleges have to balance alumni relations, corporate partnerships, student well-being and, of course, their bottom lines.
Ole Miss was among the first universities to detail its plans for football games, promising its season-ticket holders in a June 9 memo that "our hope is to have a full Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the entire 2020 season." In reality, the university is less certain it can pull that off, according to chief financial officer Wesley Owen.
Many universities are coming up with creative solutions to milk money from their alumni bases. Texas A&M will give season-ticket holders the opportunity to donate the cost of their seats should capacity restrictions prevent them from attending, a strategy the Aggies also used for the canceled spring baseball season.
I read the print version of this Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-new-headache-deciding-who-can-attend-games-11593522000
When the coronavirus pandemic shut down American sports in March, college football had the benefit of time. The season doesn't start until about Labor Day, and many schools optimistically forged ahead as if their game days would be business as usual.
But today, the season is just two months away. The virus is surging strongly, especially in places, like the South, where college football is king. University administrators are coming to grips with an unhappy reality: the biggest stadiums in the U.S. are going to look pretty lonely on Saturday afternoons.
That raises a very uncomfortable question for universities: how to decide which fans will make the cut if stadium capacity is limited. The answer is not straightforward, as colleges have to balance alumni relations, corporate partnerships, student well-being and, of course, their bottom lines.
Ole Miss was among the first universities to detail its plans for football games, promising its season-ticket holders in a June 9 memo that "our hope is to have a full Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the entire 2020 season." In reality, the university is less certain it can pull that off, according to chief financial officer Wesley Owen.
Many universities are coming up with creative solutions to milk money from their alumni bases. Texas A&M will give season-ticket holders the opportunity to donate the cost of their seats should capacity restrictions prevent them from attending, a strategy the Aggies also used for the canceled spring baseball season.
I read the print version of this Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-new-headache-deciding-who-can-attend-games-11593522000