Will fans be allowed at Razorback Stadium in 2020?
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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas still plans to have fans at Reynolds Razorback Stadium this year, but it won’t be anywhere close to capacity.
After the north end zone expansion, the Razorbacks’ home stadium can seat up to 76,000 fans, Even though Arkansas hasn’t come close to hitting that mark recently, it will have even lower attendance in 2020 because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The state of Arkansas is in Phase II of its reopening plan, which allows large outdoor venues to go up to 66 percent capacity. That would equate to 50,160 fans at Razorback Stadium, but that number will likely be much lower for football games.
On a Zoom videoconference with local media Thursday, athletics director Hunter Yurachek said in order to achieve proper social distancing inside the stadium, it would be closer to 25 percent capacity.
“That plan is continuing to be put together and we're in communications with the staff at the Arkansas Department of Health and staff,” Yurachek said. “Our plan is to have fans in the stands. It won't look like it has in the past, but if we had to play a game this Saturday, it would be roughly 25 percent capacity.”
At 25 percent capacity, the Razorbacks would be allowing only 19,000 fans inside the stadium. Yurachek said they have sold about 33,000 season tickets, so decisions will have to be made about which fans actually get tickets.
Those plans have yet to be finalized, but the UA said in a statement Thursday that season ticket holders and Razorback Foundation members will be receiving additional information regarding the 2020 season - including about capacity and procedures - in the coming weeks.
Yurachek said Arkansas will get some feedback and guidance from the SEC, but decisions about fans in the stands will likely be up to each of the 11 states in the conference’s footprint.
“We’ll work together as Southeastern Conference institutions to have some commonalities around our event operations and those plans,” Yurachek said. “Of course, we all reside in different states, so we have to follow those guidelines that are established individually by each state’s health departments.
“So I think you’ll see a hybrid where there are some parameters that are put in place that we all collectively buy into as Southeastern Conference members and then there’ll be some that will vary from state to state.”
Whether or not tailgating will be allowed is also still up in the air, Yurachek said.
"Obviously if there’s tailgating, it’s going to look dramatically different than what tailgating has been," Yurachek said. "College football is going to look dramatically different than it has ever looked.
"If you’re going to come to a college football game this year, wherever you’re going, you’re just going to have to accept it’s not going to be the same college football atmosphere that we have all come to love, especially in the Southeastern Conference. It’s going to be dramatically different."