Fans still want to see the Buckeyes play.
Despite both the health and economic concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty whether there would even be a football season, Ohio State saw more than 44,000 season ticket renewals this year, an Ohio State spokesperson told Eleven Warriors on Friday. The renewal numbers were first reported by the Columbus Dispatch.
Amid the coronavirus crisis, the university extended the deadline for season-ticket holders to renew their tickets twice, with the final deadline landing on May 29. By that deadline, 44,320 decided to renew their tickets – an 87.1 percent renewal rate.
Despite a large number of renewals given the circumstances, there remains uncertainty as to how many fans will be permitted to attend Ohio State football games this fall – if at all.
On Wednesday, Ohio State president Michael Drake said that while no final decisions had been made, Ohio State was planning to have a football season this fall with fans in the stands in a social-distanced capacity.
“Regarding football, our hope and intention is to safely have a football season, with an audience spaced out in our stadium, but we haven’t made any final decisions,” Drake said.
Last month, Gene Smith said Ohio State was exploring the possibility of playing games with no fans, or limiting the capacity to 20,000 to 50,000 spectators with social distancing measures in place. Smith said he was becoming more comfortable with the idea of no fans in the stands, but was optimistic it won't come to that, with the school instead using social distancing measures with fans in the stands.
“Obviously, we're fortunate to have 100,000 seats in the stadium,” Smith said. “So, could we implement the current CDC guidelines, the state guidelines around physical distancing, mask requirements and all those types of things in an outdoor environment and have obviously significantly less fans than what we are used to? I think it's possible. I just feel like we have the talent, skill and space capacity to provide an opportunity for a certain number of fans to have access to our particular stadium.
“Of course, that wouldn't be true across the country because of capacity. But I think we can get there.”
Ohio State's football season is set to begin on Sept. 5 in Ohio Stadium with the Buckeyes' matchup with Bowling Green.
