10,000 fans to experience changes at opener

Like he’s done for almost two decades, Bob Simpson is going to the University of Houston’s football game Thursday night.

Alongtime season ticketholder, Simpson has no concerns about attending a large event during the coronavirus pandemic. He is curious, though, if the Cougars can bounce back from a 4-8 season.

“People need a sense of normalcy, and football is part of that picture,” Simpson said.

Dave Turnquist will be there, too, continuing a family tradition that goes back more than 35 years to the Astrodome days of the mid-1980s. Sitting with him in the stands will be his 85-year-old mother, Sylvia Skotak.

“We will, of course, be masked up and have hand sanitizer, but it’s outside and only 25 percent capacity, so I don’t know howmuch safer it could get,” Turnquist said.

As the Cougars prepare to start the 2020 football season (again) against Tulane, things will be anything but normal. Fans at TDECU Stadium will be greeted by several changes that are part of the school’s response to COVID-19.

“The two priorities are going to be safety, No. 1, and No. 2, still try and make it as convenient and enjoyable for the fans when they come out so they don’t look at it as an inconvenience or burden that kind of disrupts what their typical game day experience is,” said David Tagliarino, UH deputy athletic director and chief revenue officer.

The game is a long time coming for the Cougars, whose schedule has been turned upsidedown with five cancellations or postponements due to COVID-19 issues with opponents. This will mark the latest start to a season in UH history.

Among the most obvious changes: The crowd is expected to be about 10,000. That’s 25 percent of the regular capacity of TDECU Stadium, which seats40,000. Attendees must wear masks, except when eating or drinking.

As COVID-19 continued into the summer, Tagliarino said, it became clear things would be “dramatically different” this season. Athletic officials discussed what was already in place for game day — and what was needed.

“I’ve been doing sports entertainment and events for almost 30 years now, and this is something we’ve never had to contemplate or deal with,” Tagliarino said. “It’s more of just really trying to think through what that new game day experience is going to look like.

“What is needed versus what you’ve done in the past, and then figuring out how you tweak and adjust those plans, with the ultimate priority and focus being safety and welfare of all attendees and making it enjoyable and fun.”

An emphasis will be placed on avoiding congestion and lines, whether at the stadium entrance or the concession stands.

Based on seat location, fans have been assigned a gate to enter the stadium. Contactless options are also in place with mobile ticketing and parking and for cashless food, beverage and merchandise purchases. For the second straight year, UH is offering an in-seat food and beverage service through a partnership with app-based sEATz.

What other changes can fans expect?

• The Spirit of Houston Marching Band will be scaled down to about 160, rather than the 260 members typically at home games, and sit at social distances in Sections 132-140. It won’t march at halftime.

• Cheerleaders and Cougar Dolls will join the band in the stands and not down on the sidelines this season.

• A minimum of 1,250 student tickets will be distributed for home games, which is 75 percent less than normal (5,000), although Tagliarino said that total will be slightly higher for the opener.

• Fewer people in the stands means less noise. Aspokesman for the American Athletic Conference said Tuesday that “ambient noise, music and artificial sound” is allowed.

“I’m anxious to see how it goes,” coach Dana Holgorsen said Tuesday on 97.5 FM. “What the crowd looks like, how it’s dispersed, the in-game entertainment. I’ve heard everything from loud music to fake crowd noise to pure silence. We’ll be ready for anything.”

• Additional sanitizer stations have been placed in concourses around the stadium.

A tough decision UH officials had to make: no tailgating.

On any normal game day, Cullen Boulevard is lined with tents and grills. For a decade, Jason Faircloth and his wife, Papar, both UH alums, gathered with a groupof30 friends in the RV Lot outside TDECU Stadium. Sometimes it would be an all-day affair with gumbo, wings, crawfish, hot dogs and other items on the menu.

“It was a big part of our game experience ,” said Fair cloth, whose group of 12 season ticket holders was unanimous in opting out of the season. “Right now, just isn’t worth the risk.”

Tagliarino said the school took several factors into consideration for not allowing tailgating, including local and state COVID-19 guidelines.

“Thatwas the last thing we want to be doing. But at the end of the day, we’re doing it because it’s in the best interest of everybody,” he said. “We’re in a new time and place.”

Lauren Phegley, whose parents are 30-year season ticket holders, opted out early in summer “due to our comfort level” but might buy from single-game ticket allotments. Tim Kreitzer, a 1991 graduate who has club-level seats, said hiswife is a leukemia survivor and immune-compromised.

“We are doing everything we can to remain safe,” said Kreitzer, who still supports the team through the 46ers, the football program’s main fundraising arm, and Cougar Pride.

COVID-19, or the delay to the season, won’t stop Jason Mercer from being at Thursday’s opener. His family includes several generations of UH graduates, and he’s among a group of 13 season ticket holders who wouldn’t think of being anywhere else but TDECU Stadium.

“I think the love for the Coogs is in our blood,” Mercer said.