Seating for Georgia Tech football games at Bobby Dodd Stadium will return to 100% capacity beginning Sept. 4 for Tech’s first home game of the season.
Tech made that announcement Wednesday morning, confirming what athletic director Todd Stansbury was saying publicly as recently as last week.
The institute also will permit full on-campus tailgating. Last season, games were held at 20% capacity of the 55,000-seat stadium, and tailgating was not allowed on campus. The school does not yet have a policy regarding the usage of masks at games, according to an athletic department spokesman.
“Thanks to encouraging trends regarding the number of people becoming vaccinated and the declining spread of COVID-19, as well as updated guidance from public health experts, we’re grateful and excited to announce that we will be able to welcome Georgia Tech fans back to full stadium and tailgating operations on campus this fall,” Stansbury said in a news release issued Wednesday morning.
“We will continue to prioritize the health and safety of our entire community, but are confident that we can maintain a safe environment while bringing back the full college football gameday experience that we all know and love on The Flats.”
The Yellow Jackets will play Northern Illinois at home in their season opener, the first of seven home games, including one (vs. North Carolina on Sept. 25) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The announcement follows similar decisions by the Braves, Atlanta United and the Falcons to return to full capacity. At Tech baseball home games, an attendance maximum was set at approximately 20% before being expanded last week to 31%.
Across the ACC, schools are in varying states of planning for home-game attendance. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has stated his hopes of lifting mandated social distancing and restrictions on mass gatherings by June 1, which could open the doors for the state’s four ACC schools to return to 100% capacity. Clemson has declared its intention to be at 100%. Boston College, Pittsburgh, Virginia and Virginia Tech are among schools that have intentions or hopes to be at full capacity, pending approval from state and local officials.
2021 Georgia Tech schedule
(Home games in bold)
Sept. 4 vs. Northern Illinois
Sept. 11 vs. Kennesaw State
Sept. 18 at Clemson
Sept. 25 vs. North Carolina (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
Oct. 2 vs. Pitt
Oct. 9 at Duke
Oct. 23 at Virginia
Oct. 30 vs. Virginia Tech
Nov. 6 at Miami
Nov. 13 vs. Boston College
Nov. 20 at Notre Dame
Nov. 27 vs. Georgia
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