Come high noon on Saturday at Kroger Field, you may want to see Liam Coen’s new offense and Will Levis’ rocket arm and Wan’Dale Robinson’s play-making ability as Mark Stoops’ Wildcats open the season against Louisiana Monroe.
Me, I want to see how many fans show up.
Just because college football has returned to 100 percent attendance after last season’s COVID-19 restricted or prohibited attendance, doesn’t mean the fans will return. Not all of them, anyway.
Look at last week. Just 41,064 showed up at Illinois to watch the Illini make head coach Bret Bielema’s debut a success, thanks to a 30-22 victory over Nebraska. Memorial Stadium in Champaign-Urbana seats 60,670.
Even worse, UCLA’s 44-10 trouncing of Hawaii drew just 32,982 to the Rose Bowl, the second-smallest crowd since the Bruins began playing their home games in beautiful Pasadena in 1982. (Lowest: 32,513 vs. Oregon State on Nov. 7, 1992). Currently, the Rose Bowl seats 80,616 for college football.
To be sure, there is high ticket demand for this Saturday’s spotlight games. The cheapest seat you can buy for Saturday night’s epic Georgia-Clemson clash in Charlotte is $126 on VividSeats. You still have to pay at least $97 on the secondary market for Alabama-Miami on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. Saturday night’s Arizona-BYU game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas has sold over 57,000 tickets.
What about UK-ULM? As of Tuesday afternoon, Ticketmaster had plenty of good seats available for the Wildcats’ matchup with the Warhawks. After all, ULM went 0-9 last season. Still, it is the opener for a Kentucky team that has been to five straight bowls and at a time when fans can return to the normal college football viewing experience.
Or is it? With the Delta variant expanding our global pandemic, do fans really want to sit in packed stadiums, not knowing who is or isn’t vaccinated? After all, most college football season-ticket holders are 50 years of age or older, the demographic most vulnerable to the virus.
John Adams of the Knoxville News Sentinel polled his readers about their desire to attend Tennessee home games. Wrote one, “As much as I want to go to games, I will not risk my life to go to a game and sit with people who are so ignorant they ignore doctors, nurses, microbiologists, immunologists, epidemiologists and other researchers but who have no hesitations about believing politicians whose IQs are the single-digit level.”
The number of schools who have tried to fully address that problem are in the single digits. Only LSU, Oregon, Oregon State and Tulane are requiring fans to either be vaccinated or show a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of the game. Most programs have opted for toothless mask measures. Unfortunately, UK falls into that group.
The SEC says it is not in a position to require a vaccine mandate for fans across its stadiums. The league says the local protocols in member cities and states vary too much for that to happen, even though Commissioner Greg Sankey has been vocal in calling for coaches, players and fans to get vaccinated. “My ask of our fans is to try and take advantage of what science has done,” Sankey said.
Anecdotally, I have talked to fans who can’t wait to get back to tailgating and a packed stadium. I’ve also talked to fans who say they will sit out the early games and then see what happens. I’ve also talked to fans who found out last season they’d rather watch the game on the big screen at home.
Still, it’s not really college football without fans in the stands. Last year confirmed that. And while schools receive sizable checks for broadcast rights, ticket sales are still a big deal. Power Five conference schools average $18.6 million a year in ticket sales alone. They want and need that money.
How much do fans really want and need to return to games? We’re about to find out.
Discover more from Today Headline
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.