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As more states open the path is there for sports starting sooner, not later
Yurachek has to plan for a full stadium Sept. 5, but he’s ready to deal with what might happen none of us know because about all that’s for certain is going forward.
A lot of states are clearing the way for at least a percentage of fans to be in attendance at sporting events proving there’s no point predicting the future based on today’s situation.
It changes every day.
That is why Hunter Yurachek is not ducking anything when he’s said since early in this Covid-19 shutdown he’ll tell us what he knows, what he doesn’t know and what he thinks might be the future.
It goes without saying that last one is strictly a guess.
And, with Texas giving the go-ahead for stadiums to start having games with a percentage of fans in attendance, expect everybody else to follow suit in some manner.
Well, maybe not Michigan, but the guess here is they will have a flurry of activity sometime before the end of June. Even with all the money the Wolverines’ athletic department has they will figure out a way regardless of the politics here at the end of May.
That means if you’re a season ticket holder for Arkansas football you are probably good to go. Right now Yurachek has to plan on everybody being able to go.
“What we’re preparing for is to have full capacity in each of our athletic venues this fall,” he said at a Zoom press conference Wednesday.
The Razorbacks have sold 31,000 for football, which is less than 50 percent capacity or about the average crowd size for games at Razorback Stadium the last couple of years.
Due to the uncertainty of everything right now, ticket sales have been paused. That is what they have to do.
“We don’t want to sell thousands of single-game tickets to our SEC games and then have to refund that money or decide which of those patrons cannot attend the games,” Yurachek said.
For the fans coming to the games there are no plans for testing at the gate. That would back things up halfway to the interstate down Razorback Road.
The CDC has said testing is not necessary for every player or every fan. Players coming from various “hotspots” around the country will quarantine for 14 days (and many are already in town getting that out of the way now).
Players testing positive once they start workouts will be required to quarantine (mostly roommates) and anyone who’s been within six feet of them for 15 minutes.
All of that is within the recommended guidelines, which is what Yurachek is going to follow. Whether others do that or not is their choice and they have to deal with the results … whatever that may be.
In Arkansas, though, players are coming back June 8 (actually a lot of them have been around Fayetteville for the last month).
Nobody knows what normal will be going forward.
All we know is that things will go forward.
