In-person Football Games are Back! Kind Of
The in-person spring football season kicked off with a home game on Saturday, February 20th against Davidson. For the first time in over a year students had the opportunity to secure a ticket to the 7% capacity game.
The Elon Phoenix storm the field, cheered on by the 7%. Tim Cowie Photography.
Students were sent emails explaining that tickets would be a lottery where they would find out the day of the game if they secured tickets. Students who successfully score a ticket are allowed a plus-one in their Covid bubble to accompany them to the game. Students are only allowed to sit in pairs, seated where it’s marked, “sit here.” Attendance is limited to Elon students, faculty, staff, player-family list, and season pass holders. Tailgating and gatherings outside the stadium are prohibited.
First year Mandi Lichenstein was one of the lucky few who got to go to a game. Her friend managed to score a ticket and chose her as her plus-one. Unfortunately, college football games as we remember them are no more. Lichenstein described the game as safe but lonely, with half a band and cheerleaders on the hill, not on the field with no attention to them. The cheerleaders did not come forward for the halftime show and the dance team is shown only as a video on the screen. Overall, this sounds like a very isolated and quiet experience for a football game.
The excitement of the phoenix phonetics, (students that hype up the crowd) who used to scream “ELON” and the crowd would respond “FIRST DOWN” was replaced by silence. Liechtenstein explained that the cringiest part was that they told the crowd they would be filming videos of them randomly to show on the big screen to hype up the rest of the crowd.
Band member Mallory Poff takes a break from supporting the team. Man with his mask pulled down watches on (yikes).
The only remnant of a pre-Covid game is the Fire of the Carolinas Marching Band (FOTC). “It is very exciting to have a familiar event back on campus in person and getting to play live music again,” says FOTC member and sophomore, Mallory Poff.
The marching band has had to adapt not only to the band’s personal season, Poff explains, but when football got switched to spring, there were new changes with that. She “still felt that high level of excitement,” even though her band was at half capacity. Poff takes her role in the marching band seriously as she describes, “it's our job to support our football team to give them the music to support them through the game.”
Sophomore Phoebe Becker is “hopeful that with the vaccination becoming more available we will be able to have a better fan experience while staying safe.”
Most home Elon Athletics Events will be streamed on the Elon Phoenix YouTube Page, which can be accessed here.