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Nobody has a clue whether or not the college football season will start as scheduled this year. Let’s optimistically assume that it does, which would be great, but then the question becomes will fans be allowed in the stadium or not.
College football without fans is better than no college football at all, but North Carolina head coach Mack Brown doesn’t think games can be played without fans in attendance.
Brown joined The Paul Finebaum Show and said that games without fans couldn’t happen due to the financial ramifications. No fans mean less revenue, which is a huge deal in terms of an entire athletic department and other sports on campus that don’t bring in much revenue at all.
“Financially, football supports all of the other sports. Football and basketball are your revenue producers. For athletic directors, universities and for all the other sports, financially it’s really important that we have fans.”
"If it's not safe for fans, then it's not safe for players."
– @TarHeelFootball's @CoachMackBrown doesn't believe that football will be back until EVERYONE can attend.
FULL COMMENTS: pic.twitter.com/uK4cfUgfTl
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) April 7, 2020
Brown also went on to make a point that if college football isn’t safe for fans then it isn’t safe for the players.
Absolutely nothing that Brown said is false. Sure, the TV money would still be there for college football programs, but entire athletic departments rely on the revenue from fans actually attending games.
Brown’s statement may not be what college football fans want to hear, but it’s a practical one nonetheless. He’s not saying college football can’t be played without fans because of tradition like Notre Dame’s athletic director tried to explain instead, Brown is looking at it from more of a bird’s eye view.