Stansbury: Georgia Tech plans for full capacity at Bobby Dodd Stadium

Georgia Tech fans cheer during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Thursday, November 21, 2019. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Georgia Tech fans cheer during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Thursday, November 21, 2019. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury offered a hopeful note for fan attendance at Bobby Dodd Stadium next season, saying that the plan was to have full attendance at Yellow Jackets home games. Stansbury made the comment Tuesday afternoon on 680 the Fan’s “The Front Row” show during his weekly appearance on the station.

Stansbury said he was optimistic that, with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, “We’re going into planning right now like we’re going to be at full capacity. Obviously, there’s a lot that needs to happen until then, but we want to be in position to take advantage of what we anticipate (to be) a backlog of people wanting to come to games, and the ability to provide a safe environment.”

In the 2020 season, Tech limited capacity to 20% of the 55,000-seat stadium to give fans the space to be distanced from one another. The athletic department took other precautions such as not allowing on-campus tailgating and requiring facemasks within the stadium perimeter.

The ACC announced the schedule for the coming season last week. Tech will have home games against Northern Illinois, Kennesaw State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Georgia. The UNC game will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Georgia game will resume the heated in-state rivalry that was put on hiatus last season with the SEC’s decision to play only conference games in 2020. Stansbury said that it was “surreal” not to play the game in November and that “I think it’s something that every Georgia fan, every Georgia Tech fan and probably most of the state is going to be excited to get that game back on.”