Pollard pens letter to Iowa State fans regarding 2020 football attendance

Iowa State continues to take steps towards having fans in the stands at Jack Trice Stadium this fall.

Jamie Pollard announced the athletic department is putting together a plan that could see as many as 30,000 fans at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturdays this fall on Tuesday in a letter to fans posted on Cyclones.com.

“Attendance at Jack Trice Stadium would be limited to approximately 50% capacity in order to meet the current guidelines established by state and local officials,” Pollard wrote. “Those guidelines may be adjusted as time passes. Right now, we are planning as though the capacity of our stadium would be limited to 30,000 spectators.”

Pollard noted that as of Tuesday morning Iowa State has sold “approximately 22,000 season tickets” for this fall, leaving 8,000 tickets left to be sold for the 2020 season, which figures to be one of the most highly-anticipated Cyclone football seasons in memory.

Iowa State’s plan for accommodating fans comes in several steps, including a deadline to submit season-ticket renewal and Cyclone Club donations of June 12. Fans who renew their tickets and make their donation by that date are the only fans who will be eligible to attend games this fall, which means the athletic department is unlikely to sell single-game tickets, unless capacity restrictions are changed in the coming months.

Notably, any season-ticket holder who does not renew their tickets for 2020 will have first rights on their same seats for the 2021 football season, which runs in contrast to the University of Iowa, who already announced they will not honor the 2021 seats of fans who do not renew for 2020.

Lastly, Pollard made clear that any fans who submit their season-ticket renewal then does not feel comfortable attending games this fall due to COVID-19 will be given a full refund or have their accounts credited towards the 2021 football season.

“We will establish, and eventually communicate to you, the mitigation measures that we will implement this fall,” Pollard wrote. “Those decisions are currently in the development stage and will be evaluated and tweaked as we learn more about the virus in the coming weeks. It will ultimately be up to each attendee to decide whether they are comfortable attending games given the mitigation strategies, we will implement. That decision will remain a personal choice that all attendees need to make.”