Notre Dame spent a large chunk of their Tuesday raising money with “The Fight” which raised money for students whose families have been effected by Covid-19.
The stars of the Notre Dame community aligned with Brian Kelly, Pat Connaughton, Mike Brey and plenty of others speaking on a live stream but it was athletic director Jack Swarbrick who stole the headlines.
Swarbrick was asked about if there would be fans in the stands for Notre Dame football games this fall and the athletic director didn’t sell any false hope.
We’re committed to having fans in the stands and we’ll start with the other students. My view throughout has been, if we think it’s safe for students to be on the field playing football, it should be safe for the students to be in the stands watching football. So, we’ll build off that base of the other students, faculty and staff will be a priority for us to give them an opportunity, and then our fans. We haven’t yet gotten to the question of how big that audience is. We won’t be at capacity. We’ll do something less than that. And we’ll be very careful about maintaining social distance, how the facility works, how you enter it, how you exit it, all things to be determined. We’re working hard on them.”
-Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick on “The Fight”
Swarbrick didn’t give an answer on how many fans will be in Notre Dame Stadium this fall but it certainly won’t be the 80,795 capacity crowd that the Irish usually play in front of.
If you’ve been to Notre Dame Stadium you’re well aware how they pack you in like sardines. Your seat on the wooden benches are wide enough for perhaps a nine year old to sit comfortably, but not anyone much older than that.
Now factor in social distancing and trying to maintain six feet of separation then that we’ve been told to keep apart and you’re looking at what, a maximum of a one-third capacity crowd?
It’s not surprising but it doesn’t mean it won’t look strange when Notre Dame Stadium is at roughly 30% capacity or whatever that number ends up being.