How many fans at USC football games this fall? Ray Tanner offers an estimate
South Carolina’s football games, should they happen, will look dramatically different in the fall.
Gamecocks Athletics Director Ray Tanner spoke Thursday with radio host Teddy Heffner and said it’s a given that the crowds for football will be smaller because of the coronavirus pandemic. The number thrown to him by Heffner was potentially 30,000 in Williams-Brice Stadium with its capacity of more than 80,000.
And Tanner said that’s ambitious.
“I’ll just tell you, Teddy, I don’t see the possibility of 30,000,” Tanner said. “That number is way high. When you talk about social distancing and the way you would have to deal with ingress and egress just off the top of my head, I’ve got people studying that right now trying to figure out exactly what the number will be. It’s probably between, I’ll just throw this out because I don’t have the facts (on hand) but it is probably half of what you said.”
The director of a department that brought in more than $140 million last season said this will “without question” mean a tremendous decline in revenue. USC announced Wednesday a plan to resume in-person classes in August.
The athletic department is currently trying to get to the end of this fiscal year in the black, and Tanner said significant cuts have already been made for next year’s budget. More are likely to follow.
Tanner said the athletic department won’t open the gates purely for financial reasons, but it will look for all opportunities and avenues it can.
If the final figure is 15,000 fans, that would put Williams-Brice at about 18.7% capacity. Experts told The State that social distancing might require stadiums to allow in between 15% and 35% of capacity depending on how seating is done.
Asked about the potential of cutting individual programs, Tanner said it was something he “absolutely” does not want to do, but it’s also something that could be discussed, with just about everything on the table with the projected revenue declines.
“There’s a lot of questions that have to be answered and you do talk about money. I know it’s there,” Tanner said. “We have to deal with it but I’m more concerned with what happens from a health standpoint. Are we safe? Are student-athletes in a great position? Are coaches? Are fans? Are students returning to campus? That’s of paramount importance.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 11:46 AM.
