The University of Alabama is planning on a full Bryant-Denny Stadium this fall, per an announcement by Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne on Twitter.
Byrne’s statement followed Alabama’s announcement regarding plans to return to traditional class instruction for the fall semester.
With this announcement, we've received a number of questions regarding capacity at Bryant-Denny for @AlabamaFTBL in 2021.
We are moving forward with plans to have a full stadium in the fall and will monitor medical guidelines as we have all along. #RollTide https://t.co/zEjIWIDUMZ
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) March 1, 2021
Could the University of Georgia follow suit?
The short answer is we don’t know yet. UGA athletic director Josh Brooks spoke to reporters in mid Feb. about stadium capacity for G-Day, Georgia’s annual spring game that was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been working on logistics. But I can tell you the capacity will be similar to what it was in the fall,” Brooks said. “We intentionally kept those chair backs up. We kept those there knowing we could use them for now and potential commencement ceremonies.”
So at least Georgia’s spring game, scheduled for April 17, will have a limited capacity similar to the 2020 season. That puts capacity around 25% or approximately 23,000 people.
If schools begin to roll out more announcements like Alabama, opening the door for full stadium capacities in the fall, it’s safe to assume Georgia will follow as typically SEC schools work in unison when it comes to policies.
Vanderbilt was the lone SEC school not to allow any public access during the 2020 season.
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