Season tickets first, then students
A&M’s 12th Man would be reduced if donors fill up their Kyle Field seats
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M has 45,000 season ticket holders for football, and Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork said he intends to provide a seat for every one of them this season.
“We have plenty of room to accommodate season ticket holders,” Bjork said.
Bjork, entering his second year at A&M, said Kyle Field can hold about 110,000 fans, meaning capacity under the current
plan would be about 55,000 starting in September. Bjork added that A&M intends to play at 50 percent under Gov. Greg Abbott’s current edict because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The downside for Aggies involves current students. Bjork said the university sells about 34,000 sports passes to students, and that number would need to be cut roughly in half (for football only) to meet the current capacity limits of Kyle.
That decision was met with some derision on social media, considering A&M prides itself on being the trademarked “Home of the 12th Man.” But Bjork said he understands not all season ticket holders will use their tickets, perhaps opening the way for students or others to attend in their place.
“We know there’s never 100 percent redemption of our tickets,” Bjork said. “… That’s just the nature of people who have things come up, or whatever the reason might be. And then if you take (into consideration) the virus, there’s probably going to be a natural reduction (in attendees) even more so. The fans that I’ve talked to and interact with want the personal choice to attend or not.
“… We will also recommend that if you’re in a high-risk category, you probably don’t want to come this year.”
The SEC on Thursday announced the league’s intention of playing 10 regular season games, all within the conference, in adding two SEC opponents to each of the 14 programs’ schedules. The league also pushed back its collective starting date to Sept. 26.
“Now we can have fun speculating about who we’re going to play for those other two games,” Bjork said with a chuckle. “I have no idea — I haven’t seen a chart. … We’ll crystalize that in the coming days and weeks.”
In addition, Bjork said a few technical issues need working out but he expects the Sept. 26 game against Arkansas (the new opener, at least for now) to be moved from Arlington’s AT&T Stadium to Kyle Field, with the Aggies serving as the home team this year.
Next year’s game would then likely be played in Fayetteville, Ark., with the SEC West series shifting back to the home of the Dallas Cowboys from 2022-24 to fulfill the existing contract. The series is expected to return to the teams’ respective campuses starting in 2025.
“We have no intent of extending the (AT&T Stadium) contract beyond the 2024 game that’s currently under contract,” Bjork said.
A&M also isn’t sure if the current slate of league games will stay on the same dates, or be shifted around to accommodate the addition of the two conference foes. With the SEC mandate, A&M drops Abilene Christian (Sept. 5), North Texas (Sept. 12) and Fresno State (Oct. 10) from the schedule. Bjork said A&M does not believe it has any financial obligation to the three schools.
“This is a public health matter that is outside of our control,” he said.
He added that he has offered all three programs another chance to play at Kyle Field in a future season or seasons, but has not yet heard back whether any will accept the proposal.
A&M already had dropped Colorado off its home schedule for Sept. 19 after the Pac-12 had opted to play only league games, and Bjork said the Aggies intend to honor the second part of the home-andhome agreement between the former Big 12 foes — with a twist.
Colorado has requested the game be played in the home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, Empower Field at Mile High, instead of in Boulder, Colo.
Bjork said the Aggies will honor that wish and next year’s game, scheduled for Sept. 11, 2021.
Meantime the Aggies are scheduled to start training camp on Aug. 7, but that likely will be pushed back because of the later start to the season.