There are no fans like no fans: Boise State to start year in empty stadium

It’s Joe Albertsons supermarket, but the stadium department is mine CLOSED. If you were hoping to get an up close glimpse at the 2020 Boise State Broncos when they start their season on the 24th against Utah State, prepare to be sorely disappointed. However, if you are an 1/8th of an inch thick and made of corrugated cardboard, I have somewhat more encouraging news. Yesterday, Boise State announced that due to this damned Covid, they will at least start the season with no fans in the stands, ceding one of the things that makes Albertsons Stadium so difficult to play in for opposing teams. I maintain that they probably could’ve gone to one-third capacity and still been able to create a socially distanced environment (plenty of teams are playing for SOME fans across the U.S.)...but alas, ZERO seems like much less of a compromise than we were hoping for..

I get that extreme caution must be taken, and Idaho cases are starting to surge again...but I also think you have to take into account the size of the venue you are packing. If you can have 50 people at a restaurant, you could probably find a way to tuck that many in a roughly 40k capacity stadium. Heck...it would make the “BOISE. STATE” chant all the more amusing...but hey, here we are. Boise State did say that they’ll revisit the policy as the year stretches on and added a “fun”(?) addendum that they’ll be packing the stadium with cardboard proxies of fans that they can procure for a mere $50. Sure, that might seem like a lot of money to shell out to not see a game in-person, but the money will help the athletic department and we’re all too aware that they’re going to be facing some major shortfalls in the current environment. So, if you can find it in your heart and pocketbook...that might be one way to go. I’ve already got mine ready (thanks, Kinkos)...just need to know where to drop this bad boy off.