By Rubin E. Grant
Homewood athletic director Doug Gann spent much of the second week of August in meetings with administrators in the Homewood school system and the people who manage Waldrop Stadium.
They were trying to craft a plan for fans to safely attend the Patriots’ home football games during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One thing is for certain, going to games during the 2020 high school football season will be different for Homewood fans and the other Over the Mountain schools as fewer fans are allowed in.
“It’s crazy,” Gann said. “Everybody is trying to hit a moving target. When you think you have a plan in place, it changes. We think we have a good plan, but we’ll see what happens.”
Homewood is scheduled to open the season Friday at 7 p.m. against Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa at Waldrop.
“We’re going to be at 25% capacity and that’s not including the band,” Gann said. “We’re going to take the band and spread it out and take up half the bleachers and even have some on the visitor’s side. The cheerleaders will be on the track as always.
“We’re going to have every other bleacher for fans. We hate it because it means a lot more people will not get to come.”
Homewood is complying with the state of Alabama’s current Safer at Home public health order. It states, “Players, coaches, officials and spectators may not congregate within 6 feet of a person from another household except to the extent necessary, and only to the extent necessary, for players, coaches, and officials to directly participate in the athletic activity.”
In a memo sent to schools on Aug. 6, the Alabama High School Athletic Association wrote that schools are “strongly encouraged to establish and follow policies for limiting event attendance in order to comply with the current public health order, and to require fans to wear facial coverings while entering and exiting the gates, while in the stands, and elsewhere.”
Visiting teams will be allotted two tickets per player and cheerleader at the Patriots’ home games. Tickets will be available only through GoFan, and when the 25% capacity is reached, there will be no more tickets for that particular game.
“We’re not going to have a good student turnout,” Gann said. “It’s not because we don’t want to, but because we can’t do it.”
There also will be cashless concessions to prevent long lines at the concession stands.
Other schools are taking similar measures.
The Hoover Met
Hoover athletic director Andy Urban said the Bucs will be at half capacity for its home games at the Hoover Met, beginning with Friday’s game against Dothan.
“The Met seats about 10,800 spectators, so we’ll have about 5,000 fans,” Urban said. “After we get in central personnel like the band, we’ll have about half of the stadium left for fans. It might be bigger for some games, such as Spain Park.
“The biggest thing is there will be signage everywhere telling folks to social distance and masks are required.”
The Bucs will allow only fans with digital tickets to enter to cut down on the number of help personnel, such as ticket takers. Fans can also pay for parking digitally, which Urban strongly suggests.
“We can take a credit or debit card for parking, but that means it will take more time to get into the stadium,” he said.
Even though the Bucs sell a booster club membership pass for its home games, Urban said there will be more tickets available for each game.
When fans enter the Met, they will have to go left or right to enter the portal to their seats. Only the band will be allowed to enter through the middle section.
“It’s going to be different and it’s going to be different for the teams,” Urban said. “For the number of players we have, you can’t fit them all into the locker room for them to remain socially distant, so we’ll have to do something different. And we have to get something in place for the opposing team.”
Briarwood at Half Capacity
Briarwood also will have half capacity for its home games at Lion Pride Stadium, which normally seats 2,800, plus standing areas.
“It’s not been easy coming up with a plan for our home games,” Briarwood athletic director Jay Mathews said. “We’re going to contactless tickets, so all of our tickets will be digital. You can’t get in without a digital ticket and a face mask.
“I am concerned that someone who has been going to our games since the first one in 1973 will show up and not be able to get in because they don’t have a digital ticket.”
The Lions will not charge for parking, but concessions will be different.
“We’re going to limit it to prepackaged food and bottled drinks,” Mathews said. “We’re going to have mobile concessions to limit the time people congregate in lines. We won’t have food trucks as we’ve done in the past.
“We are going to livestream every game so our grandparents and other fans will be able to watch the games.”
Mountain Brook Fan Limit
Mountain Brook will have about 15% capacity for its home games at Spartan Stadium, which seats 4,500.
“We’ll have about 600 fans in the stadium, so we’re going to be playing in front of smaller crowds,” Mountain Brook coach Chris Yeager said. “Players will get only two tickets each for their families.
“I’ve always told our guys I don’t care if we’re playing in a cow pasture, I just want to play football. So, if you like playing football with almost nobody there, this will be it.”
