Students who are planning on spending their winter break at Quinnipiac to attend sporting events will need to make other plans, as Quinnipiac announced earlier this week that it will not be allowing spectators at games for the foreseeable future.
The release from Quinnipiac stated that fans, spectators and family members will not be permitted to attend games this season until further notice.
Greg Amodio, the athletic director at Quinnipiac, said in an email that there were several factors impacting this decision, some of them outside of the university’s control.
“Multiple factors contribute to attendance at sporting events. Inherent to most winter sports is that the events are indoors and there are state limitations on indoor gatherings,” Amodio said in the email. “Although we cannot predict the future the pandemic is anticipated to escalate during the winter months. Given the anticipated increase in the infection as well as the logistics on safely gathering people indoors it has been deemed prudent to decrease the risk on campus by not allowing spectators to attend sporting events,”
Corey Kremberg, a senior film major from New Jersey, said that he would not feel comfortable attending games even if fans were permitted.
“I would not attend the game because it would be a breeding ground to airborne COVID,” Kremberg said.
Chris Cohen, a senior criminal justice major also from New Jersey, said that despite the risks, if fans were allowed at games he would definitely be going.
He added that he believed the lack of supportive fans may have a negative impact on the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team in past seasons.
“You can see the home/away splits for QU hockey the past few years,” Cohen said.
Kremberg, meanwhile, argued that although the fan experience is traditionally part of the game, the lack of fans may allow the athletes to play under less pressure and concentrate better.
“I think having a crowd is part of the experience of an athlete but maybe it’ll let them focus in more on the game,” Kremberg said.
The school’s press release indicated that there was a possibility of the restrictions being lifted depending on how the situation develops throughout the course of the winter.
“There is not any single specific metric that is used, rather it is an amalgamation of many factors that include the infection rate on campus as well as risk tolerance,” Amodio said in an email.
Despite the loss of revenue from no ticket sales, Kremberg said that he does not see the university raising tuition to cover the deficit.
“If Quinnipiac made us pay anymore than we already do they’d lose a whole lot of students,” Kremberg said. “No one is paying more than $70,000 for an online or partly in-class experience.”