No Fans Allowed For Home Opener

Chancellor Doug Girod released a statement on Monday afternoon regarding KU’s plan for the season opener, currently scheduled for Sept 12.

No fans will be allowed for the football home opener at the recommendation of the school’s Pandemic Medical Advisory Team. There will also be no tailgating allowed prior to the game. Volleyball, soccer, and softball will not have fans in attendance as well.

Here is a link to the full statement.

The University will reassess the situation prior to the team’s next scheduled home game, Oct 3 against Oklahoma State.

West Virginia is the only other Big 12 school not allowing fans for the home opener, with most other schools going with a 25% capacity model for Sept 12 games.

KU’s current official capacity is 47,000. 25% of 47,000 would have been 11,750. For reference, KU averaged 33,874 fans last season, including a sellout against K-State. (Compare that against an average of 19,424 for 2018.) Kansas had three home games in 2018 with an official attendance under 16,000. That had to have been tickets sold as opposed to butts in seats, which maybe gives you a bit of an idea of what 11,750 would have looked like.

There is still no time or TV information available for the home opener, although rumors on Twitter are saying a 9 PM (local time) kickoff. In a way this makes sense - with the PAC-12, WAC, and MWC not playing (in the fall), those time slots remain empty, and I can see the allure for television partners wanting to keep football on all day long.

Stay tuned to your local beat writers for up-to-date information, and we’ll of course relay things to you as well as soon as we can.

UPDATE 9/1/20: Kansas has confirmed the 9 PM kickoff time on Sept 12 against Coastal Carolina on FS1.