The Junction may be empty, but the clanging of cowbells will return to Davis Wade Stadium this weekend, albeit in a limited capacity.
With Mississippi State beginning its home slate against Arkansas on Saturday following a season-opening upset of then-No. 6 LSU in Baton Rouge last week, athletic department officials are preparing for the logistical challenges of hosting a football game amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“From maybe where they tailgated, or where they parked, or where they’ve sat, or how they’ve come into the game and all those things — for some that may not be the same, just because of the situation,” MSU Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director for Internal Affairs Jay Logan told The Dispatch. “So I think that in all the information I have, that we’ve put together it really comes down to our fans being patient and understanding with what we’re trying to do. It’s not like we’re trying to really prohibit or restrict or punish. It’s to provide a safe means to have sports and we’re fortunate enough to be able to do that.”
The most prominent fixture of COVID-19-affected game day experiences nationwide is limited stadium capacities. Davis Wade Stadium will be at 25 percent of its capacity — roughly 15,000 fans — due to restrictions put in place by Gov. Tate Reeves in recent weeks, while tickets this year are only available to season ticket holders and students.
Given the limited crowds, Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director for Bulldog Club and Ticket Operations Mike Richey and his team have worked to fill as many ticket requests as allowed, while also redrawing the usual seating manifest.
MSU offered the opportunity for fans to opt-out of their season tickets for the 2020 season over the summer without any ramifications toward the 2021 campaign. Following the opt-outs, Richey and his staff distributed tickets to season ticket holders based on ranking in the Bulldog Club beginning in the club level and on down to the grandstands. Richey told The Dispatch the vast majority of fans who requested tickets received them, though some have been displaced from their usual sightlines.
“Our fans, you know, it was kind of late for them (to get tickets),” Richey said. “And so they understandably had a lot of questions, but they’ve been great. They’ve been real patient, they’ve shown us a lot of grace during this period.”
Social distancing
As part of social distancing measures, the ticketing office reorganized the stadium into pods of eight people on the general concourses. Those pods shrink to four and two on the club levels and in the student section, respectively. Richey said there were even a few folks that looked to opt back into their tickets after MSU’s win in Baton Rouge.
“When we look at (the stadium) from above and we see more than eight people seated together, then we know that we need to go down to that group and ask to see their tickets and make sure that they spread out and separate and go back to their specific areas,” he said.
Beyond the actual seats, this season will also mark a long-anticipated shift into mobile ticketing by the MSU athletic department. Richey said some fans have opted for physical tickets that can be printed at home, but the split is somewhere between 80-20 and 90-10 in favor of fans using touchless ticketing. To aid the process, the athletic department has installed wi-fi hotspots at gates in case fans need to download their tickets upon arrival — among the first steps in a longer-term idea toward bringing wi-fi to Davis Wade Stadium as a whole.
“Fortunately with airlines using a lot of mobile ticketing, boarding passes and with most professional teams using mobile ticketing and things like that, a lot of people have some kind of familiarity with it,” Richey said.
The biggest changes on the operations level come in masking and the way in which fans are asked to enter and exit the stadium and concourses. Upon arrival, markers will be placed on the ground to ensure social distancing between patrons as they enter the stadium. Tickets are to be marked with the gate fans are expected to enter and exit the stadium through in an effort to distance crowds. The club levels will also be opened three hours and 15 minutes before kickoff — an hour earlier than normal — to allow for more time to move people up and down the elevators in groups of five or less.
As for masks, patrons will also be asked to wear face coverings throughout the concourses as they move about the stadium and whenever they cannot maintain social distance from others not in their household. They are not required to do so once in their seats. Of course Richey, Logan and their staff have prepared for the inevitable conversation of asking fans to ensure their faces are covered when leaving their seats and wandering around the stadium.
“We’ve talked about that a little bit and we’ve had some kind of formal and informal training,” Richey said. “Understanding that, you know, it takes firmness, but it also takes some customer service as well to make sure that everybody understands that.”
Maintaining a normal game day experience
There will be no “kiss cam” this year according to MSU Deputy Athletic Director for External Affairs Leah Beasley, but the Bulldogs’ marketing department is also working to ensure as close to a normal feel to game day experience as well.
Fans can expect “safety selfies,” a “Hail-gater” of the game, where fans can submit their home tailgating experiences in hopes of winning an MSU prize pack as tailgating on-site is prohibited, personalized cutouts and a slew of other incorporations of feeds in the stadium and on couches into the video boards at Davis Wade and on MSU’s varying social media accounts.
“We’re not trying to be the fun police,” Beasley said. “… We want to tie in cowbells and having fun and taking pictures and showing yourself on the video board with masks and being socially distanced and that kind of thing.”
Saturday also marks the debut of MSU’s new food vendor, Proof of the Pudding, which will replace Aramark as the university’s athletic venue food distributor. Options within Davis Wade Stadium, according to Beasley, are set to include Starkvegas Tacos and Junction Barbecue.
This isn’t to say Saturday will be entirely normal. Logan, who previously spent 14 years in the school’s sports medicine department as the head trainer for the basketball and baseball teams before moving into his current role in 2007, has worked closely with the game day operations staff in Starkville and across the Southeastern Conference to ensure a safe environment for fans.
This past weekend, Logan and Executive Senior Associate A.D. for Sports Medicine and Performance Mary McLendon went to Baton Rouge to meet with LSU’s game day operations crew as they held their first football game of the season.
Touring the grounds and running through the protocols the Tigers’ staff put in place, it offered a chance for Logan and McLendon to get an idea of what might work when Arkansas arrives in Starkville.
“It’s almost like doing scouting,” Logan said. “…You’re kind of scouting what’s going on at the other schools in terms of how they’re operating. Are they doing anything that we might be able to do or change?”
Changes aside, there will be an air of normalcy to Saturday. The SEC allows for between 70 and 75 decibels of crowd noise to be piped into the stadium to foster a more regular volume during the contest. Beasley noted the athletic department expects to use some added cowbell clanging as well, though even with roughly 15,000 people in the stands, those in attendance will be heard.
“Now, our cowbells are loud,” she said. “And I think even at 25 percent, they’re going to be loud.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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