Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told reporters Wednesday that his athletic department has run several social distancing models to consider having fans in stands at games this fall, and Ohio Stadium, with a normal capacity of more than 100,000, would hold a crowd closer to 20,000-22,000.
“We’ve played with that a little bit as a framework to start as we move forward and think about what we’d ultimately be allowed to do,” said Smith, who struggled with the idea of having fans in the stands at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but now thinks he can accommodate it.
“We’re fortunate, with 100,000 seats in the stadium,” he said. “So could we implement the current CDC guidelines, state guidelines around physical distancing, mask requirements and all those types of things in an outdoor environment and have obviously significantly less fans than we are used to? I think it’s possible. I just feel like we have the talent and skill and space capacity to provide an opportunity for a certain number of fans to have access to our particular stadium. Of course that wouldn’t be true across the country because of capacity. But I think we can get there.”
With its seating capacity of 102,780, Ohio Stadium is the fourth-largest on-campus facility in the nation, according to the school’s athletic website.
In order to determine who would get priority access to the limited seats available, Smith said the athletic department would first turn to the points system already in place but would also have to consider faculty, staff students, donors, media, parents and other groups.
“We have to look at those and come up with some strategies within those groups,” Smith said. “Our point system has held the test of time, so that would probably be one, then of course the parents and the guests of our student-athletes and coaches would be a high priority. We’d come up with a strategy, but we haven’t nailed that down.”