The Sea of Red is coming back to Memorial Stadium for Nebraska football’s 2021 Red-White Spring Game.
During an appearance on the Husker Sports Nightly radio show Wednesday night, Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos revealed that the current plan for that May 1 spring game is to allow 50% capacity at Memorial Stadium. That would mean about 45,000 fans would be allowed in.
Moos said that number could rise to 75% (about 67,000 fans) depending on how the next month and a half go. Social distancing will be implemented and masks will be required. “We’ve got to be real smart because we don’t want these numbers to go down,” Moos said. More details on seating will be coming in the near future.
Tickets will go on sale for the spring game on Thursday, April 1, at 10 a.m. for season-ticket holders. The following day, on April 2, a pot of 7,500 general public tickets will become available for purchase, again at 10 a.m. Ticket prices will be $10 throughout the stadium and $20 for club seating. All tickets will be mobile. Clarity on how many tickets can be purchased at a time will come “as early as later this week.” There are still details to be determined based on what the final attendance number looks like.
Though children have had free admission in the past, Moos said that’ll change this season. “We’ll get back to that hopefully next year, but there are some things we have to guard against a bit here,” Moos said. Every person in attendance will need a paid ticket.
The game will kick at 1 p.m. CT, Nebraska said in a statement released shortly after Moos’ radio appearance. Television coverage is to be determined.
The Big Ten announced on Wednesday that it would begin allowing fans back into venues for spring sports based on local health and safety guidelines. Moos and UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green have been persistent champions of local authority in that regard dating all the way back to the 2020 football season. Moos had hoped the Big Ten would allow local decisions to determine attendance caps for spring games and that’s exactly what has happened.
Nebraska has worked closely with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department on setting various caps for current spring sports and creating a speedy pathway for fans to get back in the stands.
Moos announced during his radio hit that baseball would be permitted up to 2,700 fans at Haymarket Park beginning this weekend. For the two remaining volleyball matches, 2,400 fans will be allowed at the Devaney Center, though the expectation is that season-ticket holders will snatch up most of those seats. Also, 675 fans will be allowed at Bowlin Stadium for softball games and at Hibner Stadium for women’s soccer matches.
At Devaney, the lower level will remain closed off to fans. Moos said they don’t want to take any chances with a championship-caliber volleyball team this late in the season.
In all venues, groupings of seats will be limited to a max of eight seats at a time, and those groupings will be kept six feet apart, Moos said.
“We’re gonna see that Sea of Red, and it may not be as deep a sea as it’s going to be (moving forward), but it’s going to be quite evident and obvious that our great fans are back and supporting us,” Moos said.
Other news and notes:
>> The first caller in to Moos’ show Wednesday night asked about the Oklahoma debacle a few weeks ago, why Nebraska even looked at moving that game and why it took six hours for the Nebraska athletic department to respond to a report from Brett McMurphy shortly before 9 a.m. CT that NU was looking to “get out” of the game. Moos reiterated Nebraska’s commitment to the Sept. 18 game, but said Nebraska looked at a number of options to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus on the athletic department. He also added that if the opponent had not been Oklahoma, and a lower-caliber team, the reaction might not have been as visceral.
“(The response) probably could have come out sooner, and probably should have,” Moos said. “I’ll take responsibility for that.”
He said Nebraska was looking into rescheduling its Nov. 13 game against Southeastern Louisiana to Sept. 4. That weekend is currently a bye week, left empty when Nebraska was originally expecting to play in Dublin, Ireland, the week prior. As it stands, Nebraska will only play one home game before October; the program is concerned about the effects of that on recruiting.
>> Speaking of the Ireland game, Moos said Nebraska could reschedule that trip for the 2022 season. He’s hoping for closure on that front in the coming weeks.
Derek is a newbie on the Hail Varsity staff covering Husker athletics. In college, he was best known as ‘that guy from Twitter.’ He has covered a Sugar Bowl, a tennis national championship and almost everything in between (except an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game… *tears*). In his spare time, he can be found arguing with literally anyone about sports.
