(AP) Iowa State athletic director Jaime Pollard is telling Cyclones fans that football home games will be played at no more than 50% capacity at Jack Trice Stadium, pending a change in state and local health guidelines. That means no more than 30,000 fans.
Pollard made the announcement in a letter posted to the ISU athletics website Tuesday.
About 22,000 season tickets have been renewed, leaving about 8,000 seats to be filled. Fans not renewing their season tickets and making their Cyclone Club donation by June 12 won’t be allowed to attend games unless guidelines change and capacity can exceed 50%. Single-game tickets sales are unlikely unless capacity is increased.
Season ticket holders who don’t renew for 2020 will continue to have first rights on their same seats for 2021. Season ticket holders who renew but later decide they aren’t comfortable attending games because of fear of coronavirus infection can request a refund or defer the purchase of their season tickets to the 2021 season.
Pollard wrote that ISU will take measures to mitigate the risk to fans and announce them later.
“After consulting with campus officials, we have concluded there is no reasonable way to guarantee that no one will contract the COVID-19 virus,” Pollard said. “Trying to adhere to a standard of absolute protection is simply not reasonable. We would either be held accountable for being far too restrictive or, more likely, not restrictive enough.”
Pollard added, “It will ultimately be up to each attendee to decide whether they are comfortable attending games given the mitigation strategies we will implement. That decision will remain a personal choice that all attendees need to make.”
PAC-12 allowing voluntary workouts to begin June 15
The Pac-12 Conference said it’s allowing voluntary in-person workouts on campus for all sports beginning June 15, subject to the decision of each individual school and where allowed by local and state guidelines.
The decision by Pac-12 leaders followed the announcement last week by the NCAA to permit schools to reopen for voluntary activities beginning June 1.
The Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee created a series of guidelines and protocols for schools to follow once they decide to open for individual workouts.
“As states have either already opened or begin to open up access to parks, gyms and other training facilities, student-athletes should have the option at this time to be in, what for many, will be a much safer environment on campus, where they can have access to the best available health, well-being and training support,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said.
The guidelines created by the medical advisory committee cover returning to campus; returning to an athletic facility; facility specific considerations; return to exercise and response to infection or presumed infection. The conference said each school will develop its own health and safety plan consistent with recommendation and local public health guidance.