STARKVILLE — Mississippi State will allow an increase in capacity at Dudy Noble Field as soon as this weekend.
A source inside the athletic department, who asked not to be named, confirmed to The Dispatch Tuesday that the school plans to sell an additional 4,400 chairback seats, while outfield rigs will now be allowed to hold as many as eight people. It’s also expected that as many as 750 student tickets will be allotted for this coming weekend, though that could grow incrementally over the next few weeks. The university has not released official numbers publicly.
“All of us want packed stadiums,” MSU Athletic Director John Cohen said in an interview with SportsTalk Mississippi on Wednesday. “The question is, how quickly can we get there? How safe can we make the student athletes? What are the COVID numbers like in our state? All of this has to be monitored, and we want to move in that direction.”
The changes came shortly after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves repealed an executive order that previously put a 25-percent cap on outdoor venues amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That change went into effect at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The Bulldogs were slated to play Tennessee Tech in a three-game set that would begin Friday, but the Golden Eagles were unable to travel due to COVID-19-related issues within the program. MSU has since replaced Tennessee Tech with Kent State. First pitch times are scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
The MSU athletic department released a statement on increased attendance Tuesday afternoon, expressing that it is in contact with local and state government officials, in addition to other state institutions as it relates to adjusting current game day operations.
“The health and safety of student-athletes, staff and the Mississippi State community remain of the utmost importance,” the statement read. “MSU intends to strike a necessary balance between protecting our student-athletes, staff, and fans and expanded capacity and fewer restrictions.”
Dudy Noble Field had been restricted to roughly 25 percent capacity under previous measures, while outfield rigs were limited to just four patrons per box. Student seating was also limited to roughly 225 patrons.
Seats that are now open under new guidelines will be distributed to patrons who already had season tickets in those demarcated seats prior to the limits being imposed.
In accordance with MSU and Southeastern Conference policy, the school will still have a number of safety measures in place. Patrons will still be required to fill out a pre-game health screen that includes a temperature check. Face coverings over the nose and mouth also will still be required for admittance, during all movement throughout the stadium and whenever guests cannot maintain the recommended physical distance from others outside their household.
Wednesday, the MSU Office of Public Affairs announced the school would retain COVID-19 safety protocols through the end of the semester. These protocols include mask wearing, social distancing and varying sanitation requirements. President Mark Keenum said in the release MSU would evaluate the situation at the end of the semester in hopes of relaxing restrictions should vaccination rates rise and positive test cases decline.
Keenum added in the release that the school planned to host an in-person commencement and that the school remains hopeful the fall 2021 semester will include in-person classes.
“It’s important to note that these protocols have been effective for more than a year now in keeping our campus community and guests safe,” he said in the news release. “While great progress has been made and our numbers are trending substantially down, we are not yet past this public health threat. We believe that it is prudent to keep basic safety protocols in place through the end of this semester.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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