Kansas State proceeding with plans for ‘limited’ fan capacity at football games
Shortly after Kansas State announced its revised schedule for the 2020 football season Wednesday, many fans naturally began to wonder if they will be able to buy tickets to any of the Wildcats’ five home games this fall.
Gene Taylor wishes he had an answer for them.
For now, the K-State athletic director can only say that fan capacity will be “limited” at Bill Snyder Family Stadium because of the coronavirus pandemic and that he hopes to publicly share ticket/seating plans in the near future.
“We are putting multiple plans together and working with our county to get the go ahead with whatever number of fans we are going to have,” Taylor said during a news conference. “We do know it is going to be limited, we just don’t know what that limit is going to be.”
The number of fans K-State ultimately allows into its football stadium for games this season could range widely. It’s possible the Wildcats will opt to follow in the footsteps of professional sports and play without fans, but there is a demand for tickets.
K-State coach Chris Klieman has said he’s hopeful the KSU athletic department can find a way to safely fit as many as 25,000 fans into the stands. Normal capacity is around 50,000.
Riley County health officials will likely decide on the final number.
If the season began tomorrow, K-State would not be allowed to sell more than 2,000 tickets for any of its home games. The county’s most recent health order, which went into effect Monday, currently restricts all mass gatherings to no more than 50 people. However, certain events of no more than 2,000 people can be held with written approval from the county 14 days in advance.
K-State is scheduled to open the season against Arkansas State on Sept. 12, so that doesn’t leave much time for Riley County to drastically change its restrictions.
But Taylor said K-State will present its plans to local health officials and seek a waiver that will allow the Wildcats to exceed current restrictions at games.
“That is kind of what we are talking to them about,” Taylor said. “What are our options and what are the procedures we have to put into place and go through in order to get the approval to have more than 2,000 fans in a venue. I know they are working on a lot of things on their end. We have got what we think is a good plan and we will get that to them. If they need additional feedback about what we are going to do on this or that we will give it to them.”
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Wednesday that the conference has no set policy on fan attendance this season.
“That’s very much a local issue,” he said.
Texas has said it is hoping to limit its football stadium to 25% fan capacity this season, which would mean somewhere around 26,000 fans could attend home games.
Oklahoma State hasn’t announced a capacity for its football stadium, but the Cowboys released new safety protocols that call for mobile-only tickets, additional spacing between seats, a mask requirement and no tailgating.
Even if K-State has to wait for an answer on fan capacity, Taylor said he would like to announce similar plans within the next week in order to inform season ticket holders and anyone else interested in attending games this season.
No matter what happens, Taylor is glad this topic is now on the forefront of people’s minds. He worried at several times over the weekend that the Big 12 might follow in the footsteps of the Big Ten and Pac-12 and decide to postpone football until the spring.
He is pleased the Big 12 found a way to safely move forward.
“It’s like riding a roller coaster,” Taylor said. “(My confidence) goes up and down. Right now it is up ... We are committed to try and play football, but we are also committed to doing it safe. If at some point our medical advisers tell us something different we will adjust. But I am confident all of us in the Big 12 — our presidents, our coaches and our athletic directors — want to move forward and play football this year.”
Kansas State’s 2020 football schedule
Sept. 12 - Arkansas State
Sept. 26 - at Oklahoma
Oct. 3 - Texas Tech
Oct. 10 - at TCU
Oct. 24 - Kansas
Oct. 31 - at West Virginia
Nov. 7 - Oklahoma State
Nov. 21 - at ISU
Nov. 28 - at Baylor
Dec. 5 - Texas
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Kansas State proceeding with plans for ‘limited’ fan capacity at football games."