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Post by Bubba the Trojan on May 12, 2020 16:22:50 GMT -6
Each day, it appears more and more likely that there will be college football this fall. I'm not sure when the teams will be allowed back on campus, I'm not sure when the season will start, and I'm not sure what the schedule will look like i.e. wiil we still play the same teams (all of them) in the same order. While those things will impact me, I'll be ready, whatever it looks like. Those things aren't what cause me to have the most questions.
Let's assume, for argument sake, that the season opens with social distancing guidelines still in place. What does that mean for game attendance?How are sales to season ticket holders handled? There are a lot of people that sit in Section 108 (just as there is in every section) that have had the same tickets for years. How does the athletic department assign tickets? Do they not sell General Admission tickets and spread season ticket holders out? If so, who stays in their current seats, who gets moved? If The Vet will hold more patrons at social distancing space than will buy season tickets, do we sell GA tickets and limit the number sold each game to the balance of the available space? What happens if we start the season with distancing guidelines in place but they go away, say mid October-or I think worse than that, we open the season with no distancing guidelines, the virus returns, and we once again need to distance? Do we cancel the balance of the season, or do something else?
I do know one thing. I don't envy Brent Jones and his staff right now. Some of what they do will be dictated by others but they stand to be forced to make some really tough decisions. Not only will they have to make tough decisions, but they are, I'm sure working on those plans now. Can you imagine how many different contingency plans they have to have? When the time comes to move forward, all the details will have to have already been worked out, there won't be time of a bunch of Pow-Wows to decide how to proceed.
As a lot of you know, I work in health care and have seen first hand the impact the virus has had on our society. In comparison to that, what we do with a football season is of little consequence. That said, this is a football forum and the things I've discussed above impact us all. Fire away, I want to hear your opinions and who knows, one of you may have an idea that the AD and his staff haven't thought of that would be a winner.
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Post by cornhole on May 12, 2020 18:00:26 GMT -6
Last year's DB's were waaay ahead of their time. It will be NCAA policy to give 6' distance to WR's. How PC in these times!
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Post by Mr E 205 Legion on May 12, 2020 18:16:34 GMT -6
You are correct that MANY plans need to be made NOW. Yesterday I had a call from a fellow educator seeking advice regarding graduation ceremonies. Her school had changed directions about three or four times in less than a week because they had not started planning weeks ago!
Meanwhile back to the major direction I think you wanted this thread to take ... "Fire away, I want to hear your opinions and who knows, one of you may have an idea that the AD and his staff haven't thought of that would be a winner."
My wife and I have already had several discussions along the same lines as you.Your first one I would like to split it to two parts, "do they not sell GA tickets" would be an interesting discussion ... would it increase revenue (even with the loss of GA tickets), especially IF They offered mini season ticket packages (pick two home games OR three home games), what do you do about visitor section (require ALL advance purchases), and the questions could go on and on.
The second part of that one "and spread season ticket holders out" was where our discussion ended up! We determined that once you determined the social distancing areas it would reduce numbers dramatically. THEN you bring into the discussion that it IS an athletic event where some of us were raised to be active participants ... CHEER. OH NO, IF you do that, then we have learned that the spray will travel even farther ... we would have to extend the social distancing areas. Based on that we determined that the most likely scenario is going to be college football without fans present . The only other option we could come up with was for each section in Veterans Memorial Stadium to vote on their loudest fan from previous seasons to represent them at home games as part of the best two dozen yell warriors. I did not like that idea because I would lose out to my son ... maybe the runner up in each season ticket section could represent a GA section and DOUBLE the number of fans PHYSICALLY present
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Post by Pensacola Trojan on May 12, 2020 18:55:34 GMT -6
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Post by Bubba the Trojan on May 12, 2020 19:29:58 GMT -6
I’m ok with that, but I don’t see that being the route taken.
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Post by buzzlightyear on May 12, 2020 19:45:51 GMT -6
I already made A prediction but could see plan A-D with two week obtained markers to choose A then by default B and so forth. Always having the possibility of it being trashed if so and so happens. Just too many variables now. For instance, we have begun testing (good tests) for antibodies and have found several folks at our hospital with IgG antibodies to Covid-19 but no IgM meaning it’s been around here for a while. I just imagine there are already cutoff dates for A, B, C, D and if not soon will. I assume social distancing is the last thing that they want to do but if need be I am sure they are putting a plan in place in the next 6 weeks and praying they get to have football and don’t have to do the distancing. Spring football I had got to be somewhere around C or D and I think we all know what plan F is going to be.
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Post by chasin170 on May 13, 2020 14:45:04 GMT -6
I'm just not convinced that present day antibody tests have the sensitivity in less penetrated areas (think south alabama)to be able to build protocol as it pertains to stadium seating.
Hopefully in a few months more treatment and testing options will emerge to increase public confidence,as I stand hopeful.
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Post by buzzlightyear on May 13, 2020 16:39:44 GMT -6
I'm just not convinced that present day antibody tests have the sensitivity in less penetrated areas (think south alabama)to be able to build protocol as it pertains to stadium seating. Hopefully in a few months more treatment and testing options will emerge to increase public confidence,as I stand hopeful. In a hospital setting we are able to obtain high specific/sensitivity testing but in general it will be a while to have enough of those quality tests to make protocols. I tested negative for antibodies yesterday. The longer we are shut down in places or the more rural in our country will have a slower penetrance of the disease. However once it is there it moves fast. That is why Dougherty County Georgia is so interesting to watch. Since Georgia opened up there may be a slight tick up so far. Truth is it is speculation but until you are around (at least 1500/ 100k cases it is not really there. At present Jackson is still down around 200/100k and we have had our first 6 hospitilized cases over the past 24 hours.
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Post by Bubba the Trojan on May 13, 2020 19:05:38 GMT -6
I'm just not convinced that present day antibody tests have the sensitivity in less penetrated areas (think south alabama)to be able to build protocol as it pertains to stadium seating. Hopefully in a few months more treatment and testing options will emerge to increase public confidence,as I stand hopeful. In a hospital setting we are able to obtain high specific/sensitivity testing but in general it will be a while to have enough of those quality tests to make protocols. I tested negative for antibodies yesterday. The longer we are shut down in places or the more rural in our country will have a slower penetrance of the disease. However once it is there it moves fast. That is why Dougherty County Georgia is so interesting to watch. Since Georgia opened up there may be a slight tick up so far. Truth is it is speculation but until you are around (at least 1500/ 100k cases it is not really there. At present Jackson is still down around 200/100k and we have had our first 6 hospitilized cases over the past 24 hours. You mentioned Dougherty County above and in a previous post. Dougherty County is such an interesting location when it comes to examining the virus and explaining exponential vs linear growth to those who have no exposure or background in epidemiology. Sometime around mid April (12th or so), that county had as many COVID (+) patients and as many hospitalized COVID patients as all but 2 counties in the metro Atlanta area, and one of those was Fulton. What is interesting about that particular hot spot is that it appears the genesis of it could be traced to one man who came from Atlanta to attend a funeral. He was COVID (+) and didn't know it. He directly infected some 40+ people at the funeral, who all went home and unknowingly infected their family and close friends. From that point, the virus exploded. When trying to make people understand the reason behind social distancing principles, this is the information I used. No one did anything wrong, yet a large number of DC residents ended up sick or worse. A similar result occurred when an infected individual attended a house party in Early County. I didn't realize you guys had not yet had a (+) patient hospitalized at your facility. I pray that as we open things back up, the second wave will be manageable. We survived the first wave at my facility, but I don't want to survive another.
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Post by saintflorian on May 15, 2020 12:08:24 GMT -6
50/50 we play
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Post by Troystet on May 15, 2020 15:09:26 GMT -6
50/50 we don't play
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