Rumor: Regents met to discuss Michigan Stadium capacity limit in 2020
Rumor going around that the Regents met and had a meeting discussing the attendance cap at Michigan Stadium for 2020.
There apparently is a plan in place for 20,000 fans with students getting first dibs.
Take it fwiw. Lot of other schools discussing the same things right now. Iowa State announced today season ticket holders only will be able to attend games.
I can see allowing only students - they're statistically at low risk and geographically concentrated in Ann Arbor. But why would they need free admission? I don't see what the price of the ticket has to do with anything.
agreed. If it came down to students only, free admission, no additional fans, fine. I can live with that. I think the long term damage to season ticket sales may be a tough pill to swallow...and maybe not. Perhaps enough people miss the live experience enough, when some form of normalcy returns, demand may be sky high.
Honestly, I see no way in which you keep students 6 feet apart at a game. If you're going to have fans in the stands, you might as well just take your medicine and let everyone in who wants to be there. You have so many logistical issues already (bathrooms, concessions, entrances/exits, etc.) that mitigation is going to be difficult.
I think the students would self police themselves and strictly adhere to the 6 foot distance rule, just like they do when it comes to the no alcohol rule at Michigan Stadium...........Oh, wait.
I am forever amazed by people who I assume were once in college assuming current college students are somehow more mature and thoughtful than they are. Also, if you have college students on campus a fall after they were basically locked down with their parents...the least of my concerns would be virus transmission at a stadium.
meh...this is par for the course. World gonna end, everyone gonna die.
Just my opinion, but fans in the stands should be an all or nothing proposition.
Either it is safe to have fans in the stands or it is not safe. I can't believe that 20,000 fans makes it that much safer than having 100,000 fans.
Sure, less people may get sick because less people in the stands, but on a per fan basis, I would think you run the same risk of getting sick whether there were 20k or 100k.
I'm sure they're working on other measures, but if you're grouping are all 6' apart... then at least from the seating end, you're socially distanced. No idea what the plans for entry/exit, bathrooms, concessions, etc will be.
but that's my point. entry/exit, bathrooms, concessions, etc. will be an issue with 20,000 (the equivalent of a packed basketball game.
1. Density matters - 20k are not crammed together, 100k are.
2. As you increase crowds you are bringing in more people from areas of the state that are low density and may not have much of a covid problem, if they catch it and spread it, you create more spread. To me, this shouod be a key concern as this is directly related to hospital capacity
College-aged fans are an entirely different risk population than all fans. It is safe to have 20,000 20 year old fans in the stands with masks and some amount of social distancing. It is not safe to have 100,000 fans packed in like sardines, many of whom are >50 (or pick an age you prefer given your own personal risk tolerance.)
The mask info-graphics I’ve seen show the mask reduces the aerosol cloud from 6 to 2 feet. Masks are not a silver bullet. Masks are not the only means we have of fighting the virus. But they sure as hell are part of any proven, common sense approach to battling it.
Except you’re forgetting the fact that wearing a mask is the worst form of tyranny that has ever been imposed on the America people.
That garnered a chuckle. Then a sigh...my goodness people are stupid.
Wow. Skimming the comments, I didn't see any snarky jabs. There must be some. Would MGoComments even be recognizable without snark? Still, this is—amazingly—a reasonable conversation.
So, you're thinking I might get tickets for 2 games this season.
Then I call dibs on Wisconsin and Penn State!
UM fans will experience what EMU fans experience every week.
Yeah, but on the flip side, EMU fans don’t have to experience getting beat by Ohio State every year.
entertaining how an OP about a rumor can find a gaggle of clowns telling each other just how wrong they are..
Thanks for the lesson on clown group nomenclature!
I have been wondering if the looming budget issues in athletic departments around the country will result in more schools selling alcohol at games. Seems like an obvious, untapped revenue stream.
For this year, I've heard suggestions to remove all alcohol sales (college and NFL), to limit bathroom trips, concession trips, and drunk people less inclined to act responsibly.
So, maybe schools will look into it for next year and beyond?
It makes a lot of sense to add alcohol sales in 2021 if you're trying to bring back fans who had to give up their season tickets the year before.
The at-least-6-feet-apart Michigan Stadium math:
- Every other row is empty - 50% hit so 55k capacity
- Every third seat on remaining rows is occupied - further 67% hit so 18K capacity
- Box seating same hit, so total capacity ~2k there
So 20k seems like a reasonable number. Fat cats in the box seats and mostly students in the regular seating. By the way, no tailgating will be allowed.
I just don't see any way in which this works. We're already seeing a spike in cases where states have "reopened." What's gonna happen when college kids from all over the country start mingling together again? Everyone wants to will this thing away, but we're not even close to being through it.
And don't start with "college kids will get over it." The giant elephant in the room that everyone wants to ignore is the fact that we don't fully understand what this does to people who recover long term. I know people in their 20s who have "recovered" from COVID and still have lingering effects. This is not something anyone should feel okay with getting.
and in the same process we don't fully understand it, as we approach the end of May, August is a long way off.
First, the “spikes” were infections that occurred before opening. They also are the result of more testing.
Secondly, you have no idea how close we are to being through it. No one does.
Thirdly, expect social distancing to last years is grossly unrealistic. We will have to find a way to cope with this while society remains open.
The "long-term effects" is the last straw of those saying "but wait not yet......". There is ALWAYS going to be outliers with everything. Sucks that people have died but we can't stop death, disease, etc...
The bottom line is the data doesn't reflect this being as dangerous as we originally thought and we should all be thankful for that. Can't let every example by the media control us.
WELL SAID.
As a long time season ticket holder I will voluntarily give them up for a year if it means football is played in the fall.
There has been a lot of discussion regarding how this could be done, which is a valid topic. However, could the regents have really met on this topic? Seems this would be big news, and I don't see it anywhere. It would be a violation of the open meetings act for them to meet and discuss this without public notice. That doesn't diminish the discussion, just makes the OP "rumor" less likely.
I've hemmed and hawed about if I even would attend a game if they allowed us to.
I've sort of resigned myself to the fact I will not be going to Seattle and I very likely will not see a live sporting event until well into 2021.
It sucks, but so does dying or giving this to someone else who dies.
Praise the lord