MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU Athletic Department officials are confident in their plan to allow the return of fans at Milan Puskar Stadium this fall.
Matt Wells, the WVU Senior Associate Athletics Director of External Affairs was a guest on Tuesday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline’ and said the stadium operation plan at 25% capacity for the October 17 game against Kansas was carefully tabulated.
“We didn’t just pick a number of 25-percent out of thin air,” Wells said. “When you do the math and break seating blocks into twos, fours and sixes and space them out appropriately to have social distancing, it came out to about 15,000 seats.”
WVU made the announcement for fans on Monday and indicated the cap of 15,000 fans in attendance is expected to be in place for the remainder of the 2020 season.
Only family members of players and athletic staff were allowed into Milan Puskar Stadium for the season opener against Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 12 and that’s the plan for this Saturday’s game against Baylor.
The Mountaineers played at Oklahoma State on Saturday, where the Cowboys hosted around 25% capacity of their stadium. Wells said the decision on fans at WVU had nothing to do with what other schools had been doing.
“It’s not about what others are doing because there are schools on both sides of that fence,” he said. “For every school that you can point to that was having fans, there is another group of schools that aren’t. It’s really about what is happening on the ground where you’re at, where your university is located.”
According to Wells, facemasks will be required of all spectators entering the stadium, and the department has previously provided a complimentary WVU branded mask to every fan who initially purchased season tickets for the 2020 season. Facemasks are to be worn throughout the stadium with the exception of eating and drinking.
On Tuesday, an online request form for a ticket to the Kansas game was made available to all Mountaineer Athletic Club (MAC) members and football season ticket holders who opted to maintain priority for the 2020 season or converted their ticket payment to a 2020 MAC gift. These fans will have exclusive priority to request single-game tickets for all remaining home games through Sunday, Oct. 4.
“That group will receive the first priority. They received ticket information starting this morning (Tuesday) on how to request their tickets. Everything is on a single game basis, no season tickets this year but they can apply the purchase they previously made to cover the cost of those single-game tickets,” Wells said.
On Monday Oct. 5, fans who initially made a 2020 MAC gift and/or purchased 2020 football season tickets but ultimately elected to roll their investment over as a credit to the 2021 season will receive information about single game-ticket availability for the remaining home games, WVU Athletic Department said. On Friday, Oct. 9, football season ticket holders who initially purchased 2020 season tickets but ultimately requested a refund of their MAC gift and/or season ticket purchase and all other football 2019 season ticket holders will receive information about single game-ticket availability for the remaining home games.
Wells said the ticket area for students will be moved from general admission to a reserved seating environment, with students having an opportunity at two tickets each. He said additional information on student seating will be made available in the coming weeks.
“They will receive a ticket as well as an opportunity to have another WVU student attend with them. We are going to assign those seats in blocks of two with social distancing between each block.,” he said.
Wells said if any tickets remain for the available games, an announcement regarding general public availability will be made on Oct. 12.
Tailgating is not allowed and RV passes will not be available for this season.
.@wmattwells, Senior Associate Athletics Director/External Affairs, speaks with @HoppyKercheval about how WVU is allowing some fans for the Kansas game October 17 and the rest of the season. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/cbDQdgZvWP
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) September 29, 2020