Michigan Plans For Fans This Fall
Title says it all. Gosh, I certainly hope so!
That would certainly be awesome. Of course, at this point, it doesn't hurt them at all to plan for fans. I'm sure they will be evaluating the facts on the ground as they approach game days.
Hopefully they will choose a more comfortable place to evaluate the facts.
Maybe a recliner.
As a Dad, I regret that I only have one like to give.
I have said "hi hungry I'm dad" to my kids so many times I've forgotten their real names
Hopefully the FDA hurries the F up and approves the Novavax and AstroZeneca vaccines like they have in Europe. Need to ramp up production from all 5 of the major platforms rather than just 3 in J&J, Moderna and Pfizer.
Saw a screen shot of this in a magazine once...
"Who the $@&! is Renee Zellweger?"
It will be interesting to see what happens with attendance and season ticket holders. I for one enjoyed not going to any games this year a lot more than I expected. I hadn't missed more than a couple home games in the previous ten years, and I couldn't believe how refreshing it was.
I agree!
I generally only miss one game a year but man that was really helpful last fall to not lose entire days to the stadium.
I used to think the closest thing to religion I had was worshipping in the Big House. I don’t think that way at all anymore. Ever since the pandemic I’ve cared so little about sports. This is relative of course as here I am checking news on a sports blog. It’s still a mere fraction of time/energy/thought compared to what I used to give. don’t know if that desire will ever come back for me.
I respect both these views, but also could not feel any further from the sentiment expressed in each.
Football Saturdays are about so much more than what takes place on the field for our family. They provide a tremendous common bond and opportunity for us to spend a few great weekends each year together, and as our families have grown and moved these gatherings around football weekends have taken on even greater import. Sure, we all take the game WAY too seriously as life-long fans, but we also have untold traditions that these weekends serve as touchpoints for. I miss getting to see familiar faces and friends made over the years in our seats, I miss watching the band warm up by our tailgate and walking into the stadium alongside from Revelli hall. I miss the look on my Penn State brother-in-law's face as James Franklin kicks a FG down 28-0...
I genuinely miss getting to be there on game day with 112,000 others, even if I think the piped in music is ridiculous and miss the "WHO CARES" chant along with the marshmallow fights, and yes even if the football isn't at the level we all crave for it to be all the time.
I understand the "gained time sentiment" over this past year, but I for one cannot wait until we can safely return to be a part of the "largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America today". We get 7 or 8 Saturdays at Michigan Stadium each year, I'm not giving a single one of those away unless I absolutely have to.
Except for the putrid play of our team, of course.
well, lets hope this season's games are something painful to miss..... rather than painful to watch.
It's getting harder and harder to justify no fans with millions of shots being distributed by the day.
I'm hopeful that we will see more consistency in all the big ten states in terms of how many fans are allowed. It's even becoming more blurred along the obvious partisan lines in the pro game. Lori Lightfoot just announced 30 percent capacity at Wrigley and Comiskey to start the season, meanwhile we get a measly 3% at Comerica because reasons.
Yes, I know it will be a conference wide decision, but even Kevin Warren is probably aware (but not fully aware) that athletic departments need money from gate receipts.
A week ago 25 million people had been fully vaccinated. 50 million people had at least one dose of a vaccine. Supposedly we are vaccinating a million people a day.
There have been at least 29 million cases of Corona virus in the United States. These people most likely are either doing fine and ready to lift restrictions or they did not do fine and are either dead or hiding at home. According to the statistics available out there the former is more likely than the latter.
We are most likely looking at at least 50 million people who are interested in returning to some sort of normal life. Hopefully in 150 days in August we're looking at a significantly higher portion as we should be near 200 million people vaccinated. Or more.
Vaccinations are averaging 2 million per day now. I believe we almost hit 3 million doses administered Saturday.
I looked but didn't find current rates. Thanks. So in 150 days, we should have 450M more Americans with at least one dose (there are only like 350M+/-) or 225M totally vaccinated with everyone else vaccinated once or for them the only time or refusing it.
That's not including people who have had it but never got tested because they had it too early to get tested and/or didn't think they had it (like probably my wife and I got it from her co-worker at the hospital)
So...
Open stuff up this fall.
Open the gates, and whoever wants to show up, vaccinated or not, let them in. Either way you are taking a chance; go for it!!
It wouldn't surprise me if the SEC goes for 100% fan attendance. I wonder how the rest of Power 5 conferences will react to that.
They'll virtue signal by waving their fingers at the SEC while secretly wishing they had the guts too allow full capacity, too. We are already at there point where 50M people in this country are most likely 'safe' .
What's appropriate for some may not be appropriate for all. Open stuff up but tell people if they need to be concerned, Stay Home. Treat adults like adults and tell them they have to deal with the consequences if they make bad decisions for themselves.
This argument absolutely makes sense by this fall (and probably by mid summer or even earlier). When we reach the point that everyone who wants a vaccine can get one, it becomes much more legitimate to say that the consequences of their bad decisions only impact themselves. I can’t wait until we reach that point and these arguments can end.
I think it's safe to plan for that, though I still wouldn't go 100%-everything-is-normal capacity. Figure out a reasonable percentage, maybe do an age requirement since none of the current vaccines are for kids. You're still gonna need to require masks too. It can be done.
EDIT: lol at the downvotes. I'm in favor of fans this fall! Sorry for having a measured, responsible take on it.
months ago i made a prediction that i hope is proven wrong: they aren't going to get 100K people in that stadium this coming year no matter the restrictions or lack thereof, and they aren't likely to get 100K in attendance ever again.
a combination of the general/overall sports attendance stumbles, covid fears lingering, mask-weariness growing, TV coverage is better, cost of games, time, etc. i think even the big house won't be full. i've been a ticket holder since 1980 and it's far from a certainty that i'd be renewing. and that's before considering what happened on the field this year and if next season is an upgrade or a slow grind to mediocrity.
I agree with you completely. They actually haven't had that many fans in there for most games in a while. The announced attendance is NOT the number of people sitting in the seats. Covid will only accelerate the trend of less fans coming to the games, that has been happening for the reasons you cited. Personally, as long as everyone in our household is vaccinated, I plan on going to the games if I can get tickets. It will be interesting though to see how many of the people who we sit with will return. Some of them are older than us and in not as good health.
the covid stuff alone will calve off some % of the fan base. regardless of what side of the issue someone is part of, people will find a decision point on any number of divisive requirements/restrictions or non-restrictions: mask outdoors? vaccine required? too many people regardless of masks and vaccines? the list could go on.
an interesting thought experiment is how long/strong would any of those divisive issues make much difference if we 'shock the world' and have a great season? would the stadium get packed and folks would just grin-n-bear- it. vice-versa, if the season is a dog, i bet the place empties out even if they do allow 100% attendance.
It is strange when I am more optimistic on the covid situation than you. Anyone who is worried about covid will most certainly have been vaccinated by fall. Pfizer has been approved for teens down to 16, and somewhere in the 14 to 16 age range is where covid becomes less dangerous than the flu (most data I have seen shows it less dangerous for 14 and under but more dangerous for 15 and up, but that us in part because they are using age ranges of 5 - 14 and 15 - 24). If everyone who wants it can get a vaccine, what would the argument be for either requiring masks or vaccines?
And that’s saying something, given how you are incredibly obsessively negative you are about every possible Covid thing. Perhaps things are looking up?
Mostly negative to people who make up facts to suit their narrative. Gems like “As stated by the CDC, mask recommendations are based on mannequins and puff tests while data based on actual viral transmission and humans is inconclusive. No one with the recommended level of vitamin D has died of COVID-19. 4 of 5 people that get the virus and recover had insufficient levels of vitamin D before treatment.”
This is what the CDC actually says “Seven studies have confirmed the benefit of universal masking in community level analyses: in a unified hospital system,38 a German city,39 a U.S. state,40 a panel of 15 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.,41,42 as well as both Canada43 and the U.S.44 nationally. Each analysis demonstrated that, following directives from organizational and political leadership for universal masking, new infections fell significantly. Two of these studies42,44 and an additional analysis of data from 200 countries that included the U.S.45 also demonstrated reductions in mortality. An economic analysis using U.S. data found that, given these effects, increasing universal masking by 15% could prevent the need for lockdowns and reduce associated losses of up to $1 trillion or about 5% of gross domestic product.42”https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html
and I don’t think a cite is even required to show how ridiculous the vitamin d assertion is.
not/never made up facts. linked to articles (prior threads), other posts, my own observations and the fact that millions of people are and have been living their lives normally since last summer. you should get out and visit the normal places, it might help you and your obsessive negativity - it can't be good for your mental health. i assume you have no children or at least none at home.
I just quoted you on two of your “facts”. One I clearly showed was wrong, the other is so ridiculous as to not even need debunking. You cited them as facts. They are not facts. Either you made them up or someone else did. You still chose to use them and represent them as facts. Often after being shown they were not facts, you continued to insist they were.
In the rare cases you have actually posted links, they are often not links to actual facts, just to things that someone else made up. I understand that the easiest way to justify your opinion is to grasp at things that others say that support them. That doesn’t make them facts.
But good to see you resorting to your normal tactics. When someone calls you on your bs, you attack them. Because I point out the lack of justification for your argument, I must not go to normal places, there must be problems with my mental health, I couldn’t possibly have kids. When you don’t have a good argument, change the conversation, maybe no one else will notice,
If that doesn’t work, throw out some senseless nonsense that doesn’t prove anything. Millions of people have been living normal lives. What does that prove? Millions of people have also been hospitalized in that time period.
be honest and don't mislabel what i wrote to make yourself feel better. you have to admit you are extraordinarily fearful and pessimistic about it all. now answer my question: do you have children, or at least children at home?
and ask the millions of us that have gotten on with our lives, in our communities, with our children, consulting with doctors, careful around the at-risk, and not sinking into the obsessive hole you are in, but instead going to work, the gym, the store, etc and it's all working out just fine.
incidentally, i linked an article for you below. might help you break out of your slump.
When you say I mislabeled what you wrote, are you referring to my point about you making up facts, or the point I made about you lashing out when someone calls you on it?
If it is the first, unless the quote didn’t come from you (and since I pulled it straight from your posting history, it obviously did), I can think of only two logical conclusions:
1. You knowingly used made up facts to support your argument, or
2. You aren’t smart enough to know when something is obviously made up.
If it is the second, I would offer as proof the post of yours I am responding to. I don’t know what you would call your last post (or even your last several posts) other than lashing out at me because I had the audacity to call you out on your bs.
Speaking about bs, if you actually cared about people at risk, you would not spend so much time arguing that masks don’t work, despite the fact that just about every major medical institution in the country disagrees with you.
Finally, your obsession about whether I have children is getting a little bit weird. Are you sure you aren’t having the problems with your mental health that you accuse me of?
pretty sure the one post you are referring to was one where i cut-n-pasted another engineer/poster here and specifically attributed it to another poster with words like, 'another mogblogger posted this', but not as absolute fact. it mentions all manner of good news and you didn't refute those positive things including his citation to WHO and CDC info. so with that context you either failed to read closely or are being dishonest.
and while i don't know about the vitamin D deal, but it does seem possible there's a correlation. whether it's that or some other, probably simple, explanation i do think we will find out in coming months/years that there is a minor nutrition or genetic thing that made a big difference for many. with such a high variance in outcomes - 99.8% (or thereabouts) survival, most of whom don't even know they have/had it vs. the other more serious outcomes, seems like there has to be something there.
i only ask about kids because in general i have found that people without children tend to be more self-focused and on average will lack practical thought as it relates to how other folks live their lives. seems to fit you. not lashing out (notice no foul language, unlike your not-subtle post about me, below) but i do make observations - if the shoe fits, wear it.
You can’t blame another poster when you choose to cite things as fact. I understand the context very clearly. For some reason you have chosen to decide that wearing a mask is a horrible thing. You want to feel good about that decision. Someone pointing out that most of the medical community thinks the evidence clearly shows that is irresponsible would make you feel bad about that decision. Your defense is to say they are wrong and anyone who cites their information is wrong.
You chose to put information (more than once I might add) that people had shown to be wrong. And if you really think you are or have been treating me with respect with every jab you post about how scared I must be, how self absorbed I am etc, you should really look in the mirror.
If you would like to see foul language, here is some for you. Yes, i do think you are an asshole, and it should be clear to any other mgoblog visitor that I think that. I am making no attempt at being subtle. I think any mgoblog poster would quickly come to the same conclusion about the way you treat me.
Why do I think you are an asshole? Because in the middle of a fucking pandemic, you keep insisting on citing mistruths and half truths about things even when shown facts that prove you are wrong. Not only do you then double down on those “facts”, you continue to spew them. You are a well respected poster on this board. People listen to and respect what you have to say. On many topics and for many reasons, you deserve that respect. Your complete lack of understanding of science and your use of that to peddle ideas contrary to what most if not all respected medical institutions is not own if them. For me, it is the thing that takes away all of your hard earned respect. Many things you espouse about important and life threatening scientific issues are based on misstatements, half truths, distortions of facts and in some cases complete fabrications of facts. It is completely fucking irresponsible and I will continue to call you out for it every time I see it. I am more than happy to wear the shoe of a person that takes those actions. I find it perfectly comfortable to be considered an asshole by you and by anyone else for those actions.
Rob F - I am pretty sure that you are not going to compliment us for being civil in this exchange and for that I am sorry, but that doesn’t mean that I have any intention of stoping treating xtra like the asshole I believe he is being. I will have no problem ignoring him otherwise, but whenever I see him spouting scientific mistruths about life threatening issues this is what you will get.
One final thing with regards to your statement “you have to admit you are extraordinarily fearful and pessimistic about it all” and your question about whether I have kids. I unfortunately was born with multiple issues that are covid comorbitities. I also have kids who I would like to see graduate from high school and college. I also want them to be able to live as normal lives as possible during this challenging time. We are balancing those competing interests just fine, thank you very much. But it pisses me off to no end, that people like you not only won’t wear masks but you actively spread misinformation about mask wearing encouraging others to not wear masks. I cannot fathom, why someone would be such a fucking asshole as to do that. Not only do you not take the incredibly simple step of wearing a mask, but you actively choose to spend energy trying to convince others that there is no harm in not wearing a mask. When you see me react to you, it is not fear, it is justified anger.
Yep, there were empty seats around me for the OSU game at the top of the bowl in 2019. Not to mention how many fucking OSU fans are able to easily grab tickets. There's gonna be empty seats.
I'm OK with a reset that lowers ticket prices to a point where families can attend for less than $400/game. Canham's brilliance was in marketing Michigan Football to mothers as an affordable & family friendly event. The kids that came back in the day became the next generation of adult fans. It made he fandom self-perpetuating. We lost that somewhere in the late 90s or early 00’s.
I understand what you're saying and you make good points but I think the covid effect will be the complete opposite of what you think. Yes, there will be some people that will be more hesitant to go out in public, but there's going to be a much greater number that have grown a life-long appreciation for the company of other people. This experience will stay with us forever and personally, whenever I'm on the fence about staying in or going out from now on, I will pick the latter. And I say that as a lifelong introvert.
I agree. I think there is going to be a huge demand for events that bring communities together. I think you will see lots of alums coming back for games from all over the country.
People are being way too pessimistic. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be back to 100 percent normality by July or August with the rate we’re vaccinating people.
Did you intend a /s but forgot it? Otherwise, oh man. I hope you are right either way.
We are vaccinating at a pace where the virus will absolutely be crushed by this summer, so I feel good about this.
I like your enthusiasm, but let's not get too far in front of ourselves. As Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend." I can't remember who it was, but someone else, just over a year ago, told us this was all under control and cases would be down to zero soon.
I hope you're right but the variants are an X factor.
Some MDs have been saying that the variants tend to be weaker than the novel strain.
I prefer the Cliffnotes version of the novel strain.
Coronaviruses in general are not fast-mutating and most viruses cannot maintain both high virulence and transmissibility in the long term. That still leaves the short term - particularly effectiveness of the vaccine against the variants and how that plays into people's willingness to resume a "normal" life.
To the original point, I think it's a good idea to plan for fans. There will be people who want to attend, and there will be greater flexibility on hitting whatever degree of safety is desired.
Correction: some variants are weaker but some variants are more virulant and/or possibly weaken the effectiveness of vaccines (until the vaccines are "tweaked") and therefore are more dangerous.
At very least, your statement is misleading, whether or not that was your intent.
Just a quick google search of reputable websites reveals that there have been numerous variants already detected. Some of them, discussed in this link from the Mayo Clinic, are more of a concern than others:
The prophet minced his words pretty well, what do you think was misleading about it?
Thank you for the link, although it didn’t work I was able to find it on the net. It said of the three variants one might be more lethal but more testing was needed. One was not more lethal, and one was believed to be less lethal.