Full Florida stadium raises cheers, fears

Fans won’t have to be vaccinated or wear masks, which could spread coronavirus

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Come Saturday night, college football fans will converge on the stadium here known as the “Swamp” in numbers not seen since 2019.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the University of Florida will let up to 88,000 people into the stands to watch their beloved Gators take on Florida Atlantic in the season opener. These fans can watch the marching band actually take the field for a halftime show. They can sing Tom Petty anthem “I Won’t Back Down” between the third and fourth quarters, a recent home-game tradition honoring the late rocker from Gainesville.

They won’t have to be vaccinated and won’t have to wear masks. They will be outdoors but packed close together. This spectacle and others like it around the country are stirring passions for the resumption of a fall pastime with major cultural influence — and with it fears about what could happen next on campuses.

Skeptics wonder if the full return of college football — the pregame tailgates, the mingling of home and visiting fans, the postgame partying and barhopping — will spread the coronavirus and jeopardize the reopening of colleges amid another dangerous wave of infections.

“A lot of people are anxious and worried — myself included,” said Amanda Phalin, a senior lecturer in management at Florida who is chair-elect of the faculty senate. “I was just driving into campus today and they’re setting up all the tents and porta-potties for all the events they’re having outside the stands.” She was troubled. “We’re going to see another spike in cases.”

Others yearn for experiences they have missed in the chaos of the past year and a half, especially the ritual of bonding with tens of thousands in a loud and sweaty stadium.

To reduce the risk of game day becoming a superspreader event, Louisiana State University announced last month that people age 12 or older who come to Tiger Stadium this fall for games will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative test for the coronavirus. The University of Oregon and Oregon State University had imposed similar entry requirements for football games. But LSU’s protocols commanded outsized attention because the university is a recent national champion in football and member of the powerful Southeastern Conference.

So far other SEC schools, including Florida, have not followed suit. The conference does not intervene in stadium entry policies. “Those are local decisions,” SEC spokesman Herb Vincent said.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin applauds LSU.

“I think there’s a lot of benefits” to the entry-screening policy, he said. Stricklin noted SEC universities answer to various local and state authorities. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and others overseeing public higher education in the state have opposed vaccine and mask mandates.

Stricklin said he believes the home opener will be safe.

Vaccine promotions will appear in the stadium during the game, he said, and there will be tents outside for people who decide to get inoculated.

The athletic director said he is proud that 92 percent of Florida’s football players have been vaccinated, as well as all of the team’s coaches.