UNC announces fans will not be allowed at games through September

UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham announced in a letter to season ticket holders, donors, and fans that Carolina will not be allowing fans at home events for fall sports. The restriction will last at least through September while the university hopes to re-evaluate the situation in October with the help of medical experts. Tailgating will also not be allowed on campus.

This comes as no surprise after the university has dealt with a surge of cases following students reporting to campus for fall semester. A number of residence halls and Greek houses experienced clusters of cases, and Carolina decided to move to all-online learning to allow students who could leave Chapel Hill to go back home shortly after arriving.

While some schools have announced they will begin the fall sports season with a limited capacity of fans in the stands, (Clemson, for example, will be allowing 19,000 fans into their home games) UNC is taking a stricter approach. Hopefully more extreme measures now will allow for things to improve down the line. Keeping everyone safe should be the highest priority, even if it means fans have to enjoy games from the comfort of their couch instead of the blue seats in Kenan Stadium.

If things improve to the point that the administration believes fans would be safe to attend games in October, there are two games scheduled at Kenan: October 10th against Virginia Tech and October 24th against NC State.

UNC’s first game is scheduled for September 12th against Syracuse in Chapel Hill.