Thoughts on fan-less games

Jmonty71

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I keep seeing and hearing about games starting, but without any fans. I really have mixed feelings about this. Would a GT football game at BDS be remotely the same without the fans cheering? I get it, we don't exactly pack the stadium, but an empty stadium? Is starting the season, on time, without fans, something we (fans) want?
 
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I keep seeing and hearing about games starting, but without any fans. I really have mixed feelings about this. Would a GT football game at BDS be remotely the same without the fans cheering? I get it, we don't exactly pack the stadium, but an empty stadium? Is starting the season, on time, without fans, something we (fans) want?
This may be one time when past poor attendance will not harm us as much as schools that have been filling their stadiums. We know how to deal with diminished fan participation. LOL
And if that happens, there is certainly no need to play ND at the Benz. Just play them at Grant Field.
 

stech81

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I keep seeing and hearing about games starting, but without any fans. I really have mixed feelings about this. Would a GT football game at BDS be remotely the same without the fans cheering? I get it, we don't exactly pack the stadium, but an empty stadium? Is starting the season, on time, without fans, something we (fans) want?
They will not play without fans as long as students are in school on campus. If the students are not on campus they will not play that is what the NCAA has said. We have 5 months till the season starts. My thought is due to the economy needing to getting back there will be college football , will the fans show up, the colleges don't care they just want to keep the money from the season tickets. (note here I have been wrong before ask my wife )
 

takethepoints

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My thought is due to the economy needing to getting back there will be college football , will the fans show up, the colleges don't care they just want to keep the money from the season tickets. (note here I have been wrong before ask my wife )
I can tell you for sure that until there's a vaccine for COVID-19, I'm not going to a Tech game. Or to a movie or live theater or restaurant or swimming pool or any group meetings or (God alone knows) take an airplane flight. We have to get a lot more done with the disease before we can even begin to get service industries back to "normal".

The relevant experience here is in China. The government there is trying everything to get people back into the malls and, especially, the auto showrooms. (Left that out; no new car this year.) So far, no soap. They've "re-opened" the economy and nobody has come. I expect something similar here; slightly more economic activity, but not enough to stop further declines. But … I've been wrong before. It happened just last month!
 

ChicagobasedJacket

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Honestly the joke writes itself.

The real issue is how they justify playing the games - purportedly by amateurs - in an empty stadium.
I agree. I strongly suspect the empty stadium idea won’t pass the muster of legal counsel for a number of power 5 schools. I have to believe the risk is too great. Pro leagues have unions and actual cash compensation for participation.
 
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I think we will know in a month after we see how Georgia does when they open things up next week. Right now I'll go 50 50.
With no on campus studies or students during the summer, there is zero chance of a Fall football season starting before October. And if there are, God forbid, no on campus studies or students in the Fall, there is zero chance of a Fall football season at all.
 

JacketOff

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The projection for sports cancelings were in line with those made stating 1.6 million of us would die in this country. I wouldn’t rule it out.
Any figure that stated 1.6 million+ would die was a worst case scenario figure factoring in very little mitigation policies. Most early projections that included mitigation ranged from 100k to 200k US deaths. The US was/is on a flattening trend to end up below 100k, be reopening too early could result in a higher spike than the original wave. There’s evidence in other countries that it’s very possible for those who have fully recovered to test positive again. In South Korea, most of those who retested positive were in their 20s and 30s. Very unlikely there are any sports played in the US in 2020 with fans in the stands until there’s a reliable treatment that’s available worldwide.
 

orientalnc

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I have a friend in Oriental who was, until his recent retirement, Provost at a Div I university in NC. He and I had the following conversation via email:

Me:

If you were still sitting in your office on campus, what would you be doing right now to prepare for the Fall?

A- Plan for a normal semester of on-campus classes and resident students?

B- Online classes and no resident students?

C- Some melding of A & B?

He:

Good question, and a decision will need to be made soon. The dilemma is in the absence of a vaccine, any relaxing of social distancing carries risks, but a vaccine is probably a year or more away. A long time to continue the current disruption of normalcy. My guess is universities will do A, with safeguards in place (e.g., no large lecture classes, perhaps single person dorm rooms), but administrators tend to be risk averse (imagine the press coverage if a student or faculty member dies) so they may go with B. In NC, that decision will be made at the system level with a uniform policy at all state schools.

I think within the next month, one of our social institutions that relies on social proximity to function (e.g., universities, sports leagues) will make a decision to continue to postpone activities or to open. Then others will follow suit. That’s the pattern we saw with the decision by most governors to impose social distancing policies.


Me:

I agree with you in theory because I have no experience with university decision making. One question that seems to be lingering in the midst of all this discussion about the Fall semester is about football. Your caveat for A in my list, is "no large lecture classes, perhaps single person dorm rooms." A Div I program has over 100 men on the football team. Plus trainers, managers, coaching staff, doctors, etc. Yet, I am reading that the money generated by football may be the lead dog in this process. Even if you do not have fans at the game, does this work? Can most colleges afford to play football without the ticket, concession, parking, etc revenue?

Last, if the NC university system goes with B in my list can there be football in any form?

But, to flip this around, could football drive the university system to go full bore with A?

He:

The rich alums who love their football do put extraordinary pressures on administrators. It’s why Appalachian is now in the Sun Belt and UNC-Charlotte has football. And you are correct, to play football, the decision would need to be A.
 

Jmonty71

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They will not play without fans as long as students are in school on campus. If the students are not on campus they will not play that is what the NCAA has said. We have 5 months till the season starts. My thought is due to the economy needing to getting back there will be college football , will the fans show up, the colleges don't care they just want to keep the money from the season tickets. (note here I have been wrong before ask my wife )
I'm in the same wrong boat, with the wife... I feel ya... :)
 

RamblinRed

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There have been a number of articles with quotes from various AD's and here are the general takeaways.

They really want to get a football season in (obviously they need any money they can get in a bad way)
They will not play college football without fans (if it isn't considered to be safe for fans to be there then it is not safe for student-athletes to be there)
If students are not on campus in the fall then there will be no fall college sports.
They really want to try to play a full season. They don't want to have to start a season and then stop it. They would rather wait until they can play a full season than play a partial one.
Winter is an absolute no go for football (B12 and B10 are completely opposed due to the elements their SA's would have to play in)
Cancelled games mean refunding tickets (and they are already losing revenue with lower ticket sales, lower donations, and expectations for lower crowds when and if they eventually get to play)
Different AD's and coaches had different takes but the time to ramp up for college football will take anywhere from 30 to 60 days. (With no expectations for SA's to be on campus this summer it will basically be at least 5 months since any SA has been in person monitored. Expectation is that alot of SA's will not be in the normal shape going into fall practice. Some schools didn't even start spring practice before it all shut down). They do not expect SA's to be on campus this summer.
Final decisions will likely have to be made in June - potentially early June.

One other personal note. IMO there is no chance college football will be the first sport back. Colleges aren't going to play student-athletes unless professional leagues first prove it is safe to do so with fans in the stands.

FWIW, Munich cancelled Oktoberfest today. First time since WWII and only the third time outside of WWII (1854, 1873). Germany had already cancelled all large public gatherings to the end of August.
I'd also watch what is happening in Singapore. After having everything in check for months, they have had 5,426 cases in the last 6 days. They have 10,236 cases for the entire year. The outbreak has been traced back to migrant workers living in dormitories. To me that has 2 potential issues to keep an eye on. First, they haven't had a low below 77F in the month of April (and highs every day but one in the 90's) which suggests heat is going to be of limited value to attacking this virus. Second, if dormitories are a breeding ground, will that translate to US and Western European colleges and will it make them more likely to not have students live on campus in the fall?
 

684Bee

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There have been a number of articles with quotes from various AD's and here are the general takeaways.

They really want to get a football season in (obviously they need any money they can get in a bad way)
They will not play college football without fans (if it isn't considered to be safe for fans to be there then it is not safe for student-athletes to be there)
If students are not on campus in the fall then there will be no fall college sports.
They really want to try to play a full season. They don't want to have to start a season and then stop it. They would rather wait until they can play a full season than play a partial one.
Winter is an absolute no go for football (B12 and B10 are completely opposed due to the elements their SA's would have to play in)
Cancelled games mean refunding tickets (and they are already losing revenue with lower ticket sales, lower donations, and expectations for lower crowds when and if they eventually get to play)
Different AD's and coaches had different takes but the time to ramp up for college football will take anywhere from 30 to 60 days. (With no expectations for SA's to be on campus this summer it will basically be at least 5 months since any SA has been in person monitored. Expectation is that alot of SA's will not be in the normal shape going into fall practice. Some schools didn't even start spring practice before it all shut down). They do not expect SA's to be on campus this summer.
Final decisions will likely have to be made in June - potentially early June.

One other personal note. IMO there is no chance college football will be the first sport back. Colleges aren't going to play student-athletes unless professional leagues first prove it is safe to do so with fans in the stands.

FWIW, Munich cancelled Oktoberfest today. First time since WWII and only the third time outside of WWII (1854, 1873). Germany had already cancelled all large public gatherings to the end of August.
I'd also watch what is happening in Singapore. After having everything in check for months, they have had 5,426 cases in the last 6 days. They have 10,236 cases for the entire year. The outbreak has been traced back to migrant workers living in dormitories. To me that has 2 potential issues to keep an eye on. First, they haven't had a low below 77F in the month of April (and highs every day but one in the 90's) which suggests heat is going to be of limited value to attacking this virus. Second, if dormitories are a breeding ground, will that translate to US and Western European colleges and will it make them more likely to not have students live on campus in the fall?

Your comments on college football are all very sensible.

Regarding Singapore: How many of the cases have resulted in hospitalization? Do they have any data for that?
 
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