Would it be possible to broadcast SEC and other NCAA games on a pay-per-view basis during the pandemic as a means to generate revenue? Would the market be there? Possibly, as long as the broadcast quality is there. There are a lot of large format UHD TVs out there with little UHD programming. For the right price I would certainly pay to watch the Razorbacks play in an empty or sparsely attended stadium. It could be empty, but that doesn’t mean quiet. Crowd noise can still be created, within approved limits, or added to the broadcast for effect. Once started, would there be any going back to free TV? Maybe the two systems could coexist, one PPV UHD without commercials and with extra features, one free max HD with commercials.
If an SEC team plays a home game it won’t be on PPV. It will be on an ESPN affiliate.
That deal is firm. ESPN owns rights to most SEC games now.
I doubt if there will be any empty stands games on amy level.
They may not be empty, but they certainly won’t be anywhere near full.
Maybe not everywhere, but I could see a lottery system being put in place at some stadiums that will determine who gets to attend. There would be limitations on how many people can sit on one row, and every other row is vacant, or something like that.
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I would be very surprised if the process of deciding who gets to attend at RRS isn’t heavily weighted by donation level. They’re not going to tell a Broyles-Matthews Platinum to stay home and let a Big Red donor in.
Probably. Money speaks loudly.
I could see something like that. Youdaman suggested that a week or so back. If we have football this fall, it will be in front of limited fans. I can see a lottery, but one heavily weighted to top donors. Perhaps top donors will be exempted & lower level donors put into the lottery. Non-donors will probably be excluded unless there the number of donors who request tickets is low enough to allow others in.
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At least for this year, limit RRS games to only season ticket holders. I think there are about 31,000 of them and a 76,000 seat stadium should accommodate that number for social distancing.
You couldn’t exclude students altogether, so you’d have to allow at least 1-2k in. Also couldn’t exclude parents of the players. Would you have the band? I could see reducing the band size to about 1/4 of its current number. Would probably want cheerleaders, but maybe not necessary.
I doubt 31,000 season ticket holders would all attend, but if they did, I’m still not sure you could put that many into the stadium & still maintain safe distances. Might have to give half the season ticket holders access to half the games & give the other half access to the other games. That’d be about 15k per game. That ought to be doable
At Notre Dame the plan is to give students first priority, then faculty and staff, then the rest of the fan base.
They need to offer refunds for people that aren’t comfortable attending. That would free up room for distancing. I don’t see how you can tell people who have contributed and purchased tickets they can’t attend.
I don’t buy season tickets, so others can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think tickets have been paid for yet. The April 6 date was for existing season-ticket holders to renew, but it is inevitable that some who renew won’t end up fulfilling their pledge to buy the tickets.
My donation and tickets have been paid since the end of March.
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No matter how it’s done (attending the games), their will be some left out who will feel slighted and deserved to be there. On the other hand there will be some who are granted access and may not even attend. Any of it could cause some desertion of a fan base. Major catch 22 I think in that regard.
As for playing in empty stadiums, how enthused will the players be doing that?
I hope most people would understand the problem and cut the school some slack. If no one can get tickets for more than half the games, it allows more to attend at least some.
Mine are paid for.
Most have paid for their tickets.
I just don’t think you can charge for something you don’t get. I would have no problem with
some kind of game lottery to determine which games to attend for safety’s sake with a corresponding refund for games you are not allowed to attend.
The point I was making is first they could/should offer refunds of season tickets with the option of still giving some/all of of your donation. Many would do that. This would free up room for social distancing and help people out that made decisions on tickets before this all began. Otherwise, next year some that are either nervous about crowds or were forced to pay for tickets they couldn’t use this year will not donate OR buy tickets.
I’m just saying this year you may need to make the offer I stated above. Give people with conditions that might prevent them from attending the chance to opt out for this year. That would free up the space to accomplish social distancing and would be doing right by people that just aren’t comfortable attending games till this calms down. Making you pay for tickets and saying you can’t attend certain games for distancing purposes is not the right thing to do. Buying decisions were made before any of us realized how big this would become. A redo might be in order to help ones that can’t justify risking their lives for a sporting event. What do y’all think. Just a thought.