Iowa State expects 25,000 at first home game

Iowa State University is expecting 25,000 fans at its season-opening football game on Sept. 12, the first since the coronavirus pandemic began, its athletics department announced Monday.

Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard wrote a letter to fans saying the university will permit fans with season tickets to attend the first Iowa State Cyclones game of the season against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In the announcement, Pollard included a seating chart for Jack Trice Stadium that accounts for social distancing, indicating which seats are available and unavailable. The university will also institute several coronavirus “mitigation measures,” including a ban on tailgating and a face mask mandate. 

The university said if fans follow the coronavirus restrictions, it will allow season ticket holders to go to the Oct. 3 home game against Oklahoma. But if fans do not follow the procedures, “we will have no fans at future games,” Pollard wrote.

“An important factor in the decision to allow fans is our belief that Cyclone fans are willing to adhere to our mitigation measures,” the letter reads. “The purpose of this letter is to ask for your support in helping create a safe environment while also providing our team an impactful home field advantage.”

The announcement comes as Ames, the city where Iowa State is located, is listed by The New York Times as the metro area with the greatest number of new cases relative to its population, with 964 cases, or 8.2 per every 1,000 people, reported in the past two weeks.

The Times also names Ames as the metro area where new cases are increasing the fastest on a population-adjusted basis. A week ago, there were 171 recorded cases, and now there are 793.

The plans also come after Iowa saw its highest number of cases recorded in a single day, which occurred last week. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 2,663 new cases after it counted positive results from rapid antigen tests for the first time, according to the Des Moines Register.

Amid the increases in cases, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) ordered all bars, brewpubs and nightclubs in six of Iowa’s most populous counties to shut down until Sept. 20, saying there were high positive test rates among young adults.

Updated at 6:22 p.m.