Big Ten announces football tickets won’t be sold to public

The Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday that it will play football in 2020, reversing an earlier decision. But it also said tickets to games – expected to begin the weekend of Oct. 23-24 – will not be sold to the public.

Penn State University athletic director Sandy Barbour announced the decision about tickets during a Zoom call with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and others.

“From the standpoint of what the resolution of the (The Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors) approved, we are not going to permit fans in general sales of tickets, Barbour said. “We are seeing what we can do on a campus-by-campus basis to accommodate the families of our student-athletes – both home and away – as well as the families of staff. But as a conference, we’ve made a decision no public sales of tickets.”

In late July, Ohio State University had announced that if the Buckeyes played football at Ohio Stadium in 2020, it would do so at 20 percent fan capacity. SEC schools are expected to have fans in attendance at 20 to 25 percent capacity throughout the season.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that about 10 percent of Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium can be filled – meaning up to 6,000 fans – for Thursday night’s NFL showdown between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Browns. The Bengals played their home opener without fans, but will be allowed up to 6,000 spectators at upcoming games at Paul Brown Stadium.

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