Swarbrick Outlines Potential Procedures For Notre Dame Home Games
Jack Swarbrick isn’t sure of much amidst the uncertainty caused by the current COVID-19 crisis, but Notre Dame’s Director of Athletics sounded firm when he was recently asked his confidence level regarding fans attending home football games in South Bend this year.
“I’m very confident,” Swarbrick said during a Zoom conference call for season-ticket holders with Associate Athletic Director Ron Powlus earlier this month.
“There are sort of two pieces to that,” he expanded. “One is will there be football games? And there will be, I have every confidence of that.
“We learn something new every day and the course of this pandemic has certainly not been a predictable or linear one, but I think we’ll play football. That’s certainly the growing sense nationally as I talk to my colleagues; the commissioners of other conferences, the ADs.”
Swarbrick reiterated his belief that fans will be allowed in the stadium, but acknowledged he isn’t exactly sure who, how many or what safety procedures would be in place.
“It won’t be what we’re used to,” he conceded. “I don’t know what the limitations will look like, but we will have limitations.
“This will not be a year for 78,200 people in Notre Dame Stadium. We’re working hard to try to figure out what that might look like and how many people we can safely invite into the stadium.”
Swarbrick noted the importance of finding ways to maintain social distancing among those in attendance.
“We’ll want to have a process for entering the stadium that makes sense and keeps people at a distance,” he said.
“I want to stress we haven’t made any decisions; we’re certainly talking about temperature checks at entry points. We’re certainly talking about controlling the entry into the stadium in a way that creates natural distance between people.”
Swarbrick also mentioned the idea of concessions being more “grab-and-go” than the traditional style.
“My strong belief is we’ll have fans in the stadium,” he said. “What I don’t have any feel for right now is how many.”
With a limited number of seats available, Notre Dame will have to establish a pecking order, but from the start of this, it’s been clear who will be at the top of the list.
“The first group of season-ticket holders we’ll accommodate is going to be the students,” Swarbrick said, repeating a stance he’s taken in the past.
“To the extent we can accommodate more, we’ll move into the traditional season-ticket holder, the faculty and staff group, they’ll be the next ones.”
He said there isn’t a “hard date” for deciding who will be allowed to attend the scheduled home opener against Arkansas on Sept. 12th, but said answers will “certainly” be announced by Aug. 1st, if not sooner.
He acknowledged the requirement of facial masks would “definitely be a part of the dynamic.”
“We don’t have any policy set on it, but as we explore options, it’s always a part of the exploration,” he said of masks.
Swarbrick noted there would be a “modification of the tailgate environment.”
“Again, I’m not prepared to say exactly what that would be, but it would be foolish to say we’re going to enforce social distancing on campus, in the football stadium, and we’re not out in the parking lot pregame,” he continued.
He stressed that whatever policies are adopted could adjust throughout the season.
“The approach to attendance, to tailgate, to anything else may look different in November than it looks in September,” he said. “It will have a lot to do with the progress of the virus and our treatment of the virus.”
Swarbrick wanted to assure fans that he and the Notre Dame administration would only make decisions based on the health and safety of those involved.
“We recognize that in making those decisions we’re going to take some things away from the experience,” he said. “But I hope you’ll bear with us and understand that number one, number two and number three for us are your safety and the safety of our students. That’s going to be our focus.
“We’ll get through it. We’ll be back to a day where the more traditional football Saturday returns.”