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Virginia Athletics announces limited attendance at athletic events for the foreseeable future

Only coaching staff and family members of student athletes will be permitted to attend home competition

<p>Klockner Stadium, which can host up to 2,500 fans, will be limited to coaches and the families of student-athletes.</p>

Klockner Stadium, which can host up to 2,500 fans, will be limited to coaches and the families of student-athletes.

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Attendance at all home games this fall will be limited to family members of student-athletes and coaching staff until further notice, according to an announcement from Virginia Athletics. This includes competition at Scott Stadium, Klockner Stadium, University Hall Turf Field, Memorial Gymnasium and Panorama Farms.

“We are excited that our student-athletes have the opportunity to return to competition soon, but unfortunately, we will have to do so without fans to start the season,” Director of Athletics Carla Williams said in the release.

The decision is in accordance with Virginia’s reopening plan, which is currently in Phase Three. Under these guidelines, sports venues are permitted to hold events at 50 percent occupancy or with less than 1,000 fans.

Under normal circumstances, Scott Stadium can seat over 60,000 fans. Klockner has a capacity of over 7,000 people and both Memorial Gymnasium and University Hall Turf Field can host 2,500. 

Virginia Athletics’ announcement follows varying decisions from other ACC schools addressing fan attendance this fall. While UNC has decided to hold athletic competition without fans in attendance at least through September, Clemson plans to allow up to 19,000 fans to attend home football games in a facility that can accommodate 81,500.

Hoping to follow a memorable win last year, Virginia football is set to begin their season Sept. 19 against in-state rival Virginia Tech. The team originally planned to open against VMI — however, VMI’s season was postponed Aug. 13. 

All other fall Olympic sports are permitted to begin competition Sept. 10. Men’s and women’s soccer will open their seasons that weekend, while cross country, volleyball and field hockey will start competition the weekend of Sept. 25. 

According to the most recent testing update from Virginia Athletics, there have been no new cases of COVID-19 among student athletes since July 24. The University’s COVID-19 dashboard, which was released Aug. 27 to track the spread of the virus throughout the University community, shows that there have been 201 total cases of COVID-19 since Aug. 17, 161 of which are among students.

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