More than 80,000 fans have filled Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for each Oklahoma football game for more than a decade. Filling the stadium with 80,000 fans in 2020 would be "terrifying to Norman, Okla., mayor Breea Clark.
"Having 80,000 people right next to each other is a terrifying concept to me at this time,” Clark told OU Daily. “And if you didn't let them in the stadium, what would they do? Tailgate? Then it becomes the city's problem and that also terrifies me. So if we take away tailgating, what are they going to do, hang out in bars and be in close quarters?”
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Clark's comments came one day after the NCAA voted to allow voluntary on-campus athletic activities to resume on June 1, a date Lincoln Riley previously called "ridiculous," saying, "All this talk of schools wanting to bring players back on June 1st is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.”
And her comments were six days after the state of Oklahoma began phase two of a reopening plan, which included organized sports activities (while following social-distancing guidelines and sanitation protocols), and bars with diminished standing-room capacity.
Oklahoma is not among the schools that have given specific numbers for football stadium capacity that would adhere to social-distancing guidelines. Others, including Ohio State, have said they might welcome between 20 and 50 percent of capacity.
