Fans continue to ask the question. OU just isn’t ready to give an answer yet. The Sooners are working through many capacity possibilities.
Fans continue to ask the question.
Oklahoma just isn’t ready to give an answer quite yet.
The coronavirus pandemic has altered the entire fan experience for all sports. The NBA is going to be playing inside its own quarantined bubble. NASCAR has been racing without fans. UFC is fighting in empty arenas. Golf is allowing a much less capacity and with fans required to wear masks.
The Sooners have been watching everyone closely, including some of their peers who have acknowledged how capacity could work for college football games in the fall. They have ideas of what to expect, but that doesn’t mean they are ready to act.
Oklahoma is working diligently to be ready for when the time comes when it officially knows.
“I want to be clear that we are modeling capacities at a variety of different levels,” said Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione on a zoom conference call Wednesday. “And again, even when we might speak positively or optimistically like we can welcome fans that want to be at the game to come back, obviously there would be protocols and precautions—wearing masks and other protective elements. Whether we have many or a smaller capacity—all of that is on the table. I want to be careful with the difference between discussing what might be to what people be interpret will be because the decisions haven’t made. All we can is focus on the preparation. When I say we are ‘optimistic’ and ‘hopeful’ that we would have a stadium near or full capacity, that’s not me predicting that is going to happen. When I say we might be at 50 percent capacity, that’s not predicting that is going to happen. When it would be at any smaller capacity, there is no prediction in anything that I’m saying. All I’m saying is that we have been working diligently to be prepared to adjust to anything that we can allow.”
This isn’t a decision that Oklahoma will make on its own.
The Sooners will be listening to Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, Norman, Oklahoma, Mayor Breea Clark and countless other local, state and university health and leadership officials will be saying. Oklahoma can only do what it is allowed to do for fans at home games.
Castiglione and his athletic department are listening to all the advice and direction, and are ready to act on what plan they will have in place for those parameters.
“We’re not necessarily going to be the ones that are making the final decision by ourselves. That would be made in conjunction with a variety of other leaders without a doubt. And so once the decision is made, we just have to be able to move with the approach and mind and be able to activate it. If there is anything I’d like to see is a reasonable timeline determined so we would all know when a decision could be made. We don’t have that yet, either. People have used ranges of time, but we know we don’t need to make that decision today. But we can’t be making that decision Aug. 28 when we have a game coming up within hours of a decision like that or days. We need time to implement whatever approach we will take and obviously be able to inform those who will have the access to come to the game. And that includes everything from one end of the spectrum to the other.”
Oklahoma has sold out every game since Bob Stoops arrived on campus in 1999.
The Sooners athletic department is one of the few in the country that is self-sufficient, but in regards to how a less than 100 percent capacity will effect revenue for home football games?
Noticeable. Maybe even significant.
“Any departure from that will have a noticeable impact, but its hard to say yet how we would quantify how much,” Castiglione said. “Again, we’re trying to accommodate those that want to come and we are planning on that as one option, but we’re also working through what other types of option might be that would include social distancing. And so when you think of that, you are talking about a significant reduction in seating capacity or people in the stadium and a financial impact related to how many actually are able to let in the stadium. For us, it hasn’t been determined exactly yet, but we would be operating maybe somewhere less than 50 percent.
“That would all be dependent upon how we are able to group tickets together. You could create a formula that might mean a capacity much less than 50 percent, but until we actually know whether we are trying to put two people together, four people together, six people together, eight people together dependent on the season ticket accounts and how we work through a system of both allocation and seat assignment, it’s hard to know exactly how many we will accommodate. I know some schools have already acknowledged a certain number, but we’re not wanting to acknowledge a number yet until we know more details. But we have been engaged with some national experts. Our staff has had several, many, calls working through how we would approach the whole experience. You might have heard me say previously that we’re trying to conceptualize what would be an experience from driveway to driveway where our fans would not only know about the social distancing, but would have the least amount of contact with people or things. You heard about digital ticketing. We’re moving toward electronic ordering of concession items. Probably pre-packaged items. Express lanes to pick them up. You know, things that in someways might improve the fan experience that has nothing to do with the precautions around this pandemic. But we’re going to work through that and try to outline it once we know.”
Oklahoma is still scheduled to begin the 2020 season on Sept. 5 at home against Missouri State. The Sept. 26 game at Army in West Point, New York, is also still scheduled to take place.
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