Kansas State students will have more room to socially distance at Texas Tech game
Hosting a football game with fans is a more difficult challenge than usual this season because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Kansas State seemed to pass its first test when it welcomed 11,040 spectators to Bill Snyder Family Stadium for a game against Arkansas State earlier this month.
K-State supporters wore masks and spread out across the venue mostly without complaint. The school’s new policy against tailgating was followed with few exceptions. And it felt loud inside the stadium, even with a limited crowd well below the normal capacity of 50,000.
“A lot went well,” K-State athletic director Gene Taylor said. “For never going through it before, I think our staff had a great plan in place, not only on how to handle the entries and exits but parking and everything else. I think most of our fans were compliant on the face masks. There were some that were with their group and took them off. But that’s about it. For the most part everything went well and we learned a lot.”
For that reason, Taylor says the athletic department isn’t planning any major changes for K-State’s second home game of the season at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday against Texas Tech.
But there will be one notable adjustment. The Wildcats have decided to move the marching band a few sections west in the north end zone to create more room for fans to socially distance in the student section along the east side of the stadium.
If there was a hiccup from Game 1, it was that many K-State students ended up standing shoulder-to-shoulder for long stretches. K-State blocked off two out of every three rows to prevent students from bunching together, but that was difficult to see through certain camera angles on the television broadcast of the game, leading some to complain they weren’t socially distancing at all.
Riley County health officials looked into the matter and decided that safety protocols were properly followed throughout the game. They released a statement saying “event staff did everything they were supposed to do” and also pointed out that “the people in attendance were generally observed to be in compliance with safety regulations.”
Still, K-State has found a way to help students spread out a little more for the second home game on the schedule, mostly by moving non-performing band members and dancers away from the student section and into the north bowl.
“That will probably be the biggest thing,” Taylor said. “With the band spread out throughout the north end zone we will create more sections for students. That should open things up even more for them. The students were really good with masks. They were as compliant as anybody.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 10:23 AM.