Masks? Tailgating? How COVID-19 could change Williams-Brice gameday experience
South Carolina is a long way from decisions when it comes to the gameday experience and safety precautions, athletics director Ray Tanner admitted. Those things will be left up to schools rather than the conference. The state government will have a hand in it, and while Williams-Brice Stadium isn’t in the city of Columbia, it is in Richland County.
But Tanner, in a virtual Q&A with Gamecock Club members, did preview some of the protocols that will be in place if any fans are allowed to attend games during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We will have all the bells and whistles that you’ve never seen before,” Tanner said. That includes “the opportunity for concessions that maybe didn’t exist before, the restroom accessibility and the social distancing, from that standpoint.”
He also mentioned protocols for entering and exiting the building in socially distanced ways.
South Carolina, like most college and pro sports teams, is planning on reduced fan capacity at any home sporting events, provided that rules allow for any spectators at all.
Tanner was asked about temperature checks and sanitizer stations in Williams-Brice Stadium. He was also asked about any mask requirements, a topic that at times has picked up some steam in different parts of the country.
“Masking probably will be strongly encouraged, to do masking in the stands,” Tanner said. “Should we get to that point just for safety purposes, we will encourage that. Will it be mandated? I’m not sure that will necessarily be the case. It may or may not be. We will be advised on whether that’s something that we have to put into our protocol.”
Beyond the stadium itself, there’s also the question of what happens outside the stadium. The University of Illinois has already banned tailgating. Even if South Carolina were to want to do that, it doesn’t have control over many of the lots around Williams-Brice.
Some of those rules fall under the jurisdiction of the state and municipalities, and Tanner called any decisions on the front “to be determined.”
“I know that one of our member institutions is already made a statement that there will not be any tailgating,” Tanner said. “I don’t have an answer right now with that scenario. I would just tell you that until further notice, and it’s going to be sooner than later, a decision will be made on how we approach this season from an SEC standpoint and a University of South Carolina vantage point because a lot of those decisions will be made internally.
“Tailgating and social distancing and the opportunity, whether it presents itself or not, or whether we allow every parking space to be used or not, or we social distance from a car standpoint to give people a chance to tailgate — so those are some of the questions that we can’t answer today.”
Timeline for something ‘concrete’
Tanner would like to wait as long as possible to make a decision on exactly what the college sports season might look like.
But he pointed to a time when the SEC might be set to move on a “concrete” decision.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 have already announced dropping non-conference games. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has said publicly his conference is working with about 20 or so models. A meeting of the league’s ADs produced a decision to wait until later in July, and that very well could mean at least another week.
“My feeling is that when we get to the end of July, so we’ll use July 30 as a date, give or take a few days, I think there’ll be some concrete news that comes out of the Southeastern Conference office,” Tanner said, “from our presidents and chancellors in conjunction with our athletic directors as to the direction that we’re going to take in the weeks to come.”
He said he thought at that point, it was important on the logistical timeline to have a direction set.
At points in the Gamecock Club virtual Q&A, he mentioned the conference wanting to wait as late as it could, but also quickly hurtling toward that point. He pointed out the SEC has been in a leadership position in the sport, and that’s informed the league’s process.
“We want to try to remain in that position and that’s why we really haven’t moved like a lot of other conferences, maybe some schools, have across the country,” Tanner said. “We’re going to be united. We’re gonna try to be the most prepared that we can possibly be to move forward when the opportunity presents itself, not compromising health and safety.”
Notes:
▪ Steve Eigenbrot, CEO of the Gamecock Club, said the department will move forward as it relates to refunds in coming weeks. He also noted the scholarship bill for student-athletes will still be there even if sports aren’t.
▪ Tanner did say that if the team only played eight conference games, it would reflect the eight currently on the schedule. Beyond that, it depends on which model the SEC settles on.
▪ Although the school does not want to cut any sports programs, Tanner reiterated everything is on the table as the department is “staring in the face of potentially losing millions of dollars.” South Carolina has 21 total teams.
▪ Tanner reiterated that coronavirus cases among student-athletes are low at this point, and said the positive test numbers were not that high to begin with. The school has released no numbers to confirm that.
▪ Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams are back on campus. The full football team, men’s and women’s soccer teams and volleyball team were among those already on campus.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 5:49 PM.
