There’s a fair amount of variance among ACC athletics programs when it comes to fan attendance for fall sports, like football.
UNC, however, has announced that — due to COVID-19 — all fall sports will start the 2020 season with no fans in attendance for the month of September. This decision includes UNC football.
UNC announces they will begin the fall sports season with no fans at games.
— Mark Armstrong (@ArmstrongABC11) August 28, 2020
Back in late July, UNC canceled season ticket packages for the 2020 football season — a few weeks before the ACC announced its 2020 schedule. At the time, though, the university was still hoping to have some fans on hand; contingency plans were in the works.
As of right now, North Carolina is scheduled to have two home football homes in the month of September: Syracuse (Sept. 12) and Charlotte (Sept. 19), the team’s lone non-conference game.
Last week, UNC temporarily suspended all athletics-related activities (Aug. 19). Over the weekend, most fall sports returned to practice on Sunday (Aug. 23); football got back on the practice field this Monday (Aug. 24), though.
From UNC director of athletics Bubba Cunningham:
We will begin our fall sport seasons without fans at home events. This includes Football, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Volleyball. This attendance restriction will last through September, and we will continue to work with medical experts and the University to evaluate safety conditions with the hope that we can increase capacity in October. Tailgating also will not be allowed on campus.