Winthrop Athletics announced that a limited number of fans would be allowed to attend home men’s and women’s basketball games and volleyball games beginning on Feb. 23 and 24.
While family members of student-athletes and coaches have been allowed inside Winthrop Coliseum since January, this will be the first time the general public has had the chance to enter the building since the women’s basketball team lost its first-round conference tournament matchup last March. (Two days prior, the men’s team won its respective conference championship game in front of almost 5,000 fans).
According to Winthrop’s athletic director Dr. Ken Halpin, allowing fans into the coliseum was a decision that the athletic department had been working toward for weeks.
“It’s not just getting permission, it’s making sure that we can get permission from the state in a way that complies with CDC and DHEC guidelines so that we can then build up to the capacity that we can pull off safely,” Halpin said.
“Right now we’ve identified about 500 seats that we can safely offer that keeps us in compliance with the proposal we had to submit to the state to get approval to do this.”
Halpin said roughly 100 tickets are currently being set aside for students, with the others going toward player families, Eagle Club members and general fans. He noted that while the coliseum has been approved to hold more people, that number reduces when the athletic department implements its additional safety procedures.
“That cap is roughly 1200, but we have to be able to socially distance the teams and the gameday workers down on the floor,” Halpin said. “We push in the lower bleachers on both sides in order to do that.”
Halpin said pushing in the bleachers eliminates about 1000 of the coliseum’s 6000 total seats. Then once a six foot radius is established around each seating pod, there ends up being a very limited number of fan space available.
Since Winthrop’s announcement about hosting fans, the Big South Conference announced that the men’s basketball series against Hampton on Feb. 23 and 24 would no longer take place.
The league chose to prioritize rescheduled games that will affect tournament seeding, and since Winthrop secured the No. 1 seed last week with a conference record of 17-1, the Eagles need not play again until the conference tournament.
As the top team, Winthrop is guaranteed to host every conference tournament game it plays in. That means fans have at least one more opportunity (but as many as three) to see the Eagles in person this season.
“We want as many fans there as we safely can fit, because we have the best home court advantage in the conference,” Halpin said. “It’s not even a question — any other coach would tell you that.
“Our fans are the best, they’re the loudest, and they come strong, and so we want desperately to rebuild that, as long as we’re always doing it safely.”
Of course, men’s basketball games are not the only event fans can now attend. Along with the other sports in the coliseum, Halpin said the athletic department is moving toward allowing spectators at outdoor sporting events as long as they wear their masks and socially distance.
“If people are wandering on the farm and wander over to watch [a] game, we really can’t stop them, but we can keep them distanced in a way from the participants for those events,” Halpin said.
While baseball is the only sport that currently remains closed to just family and close friends of the team, Halpin said an announcement would come soon about the general public’s ability to attend these games too.
Halpin also noted that one thing he has been thankful for throughout the pandemic is the university’s partnership with DHEC to provide free testing in the back parking lot of the coliseum.
“That detail alone has saved our athletic department more money than you could possibly imagine, allowing us to continue adhering to the NCAA regulations on how often we have to test in order to compete.”
According to Halpin, the Big South Conference is leading the country in the number of basketball games played without a delay relating to COVID-19, and Winthrop is near the top for individual schools.
“I’m proud of our athletes and our staff who have been taking the right steps to do this the right way — to be committed to safety first, but within being safe, committed to giving our athletes the opportunity to compete,” Halpin said.
Photo by Kaily Paddle
