Oklahoma's Joe C: 'Wear a Mask, Download the App and Hydrate' Saturday
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione on Friday took a moment to illustrate some of the challenges he and those in his department faced this week as the Sooners’ season-opener was shifted from New Orleans to Norman.
“A road game to home game in four days,” Castiglione said, “and work through all the different logistics and challenges that we had to face to accommodate all the different demands around hosting a game day.
“I think there was a time when we had some concern about the possibility of this game, happening at all. Whether it was here or neutral site or wherever.”
In addition to describing all the logistical hurdles of moving a college football game on a week’s notice, Castiglione discussed other issues during a 30-minute video press conference from his office at Memorial Stadium — during which he opened up by wearing a mask.
That was intentional, he said.
“I thought maybe it'd be appropriate for me to start out the conversation we had this morning, wearing a mask,” he said, “because we are strongly encouraging everybody to wear a mask and keep it on during the game. I know it's going to be hot and I know people find them uncomfortable, but it's for everybody safety, including the mask wearer.”
Castiglione acknowledged that Tulane is the designated home team and will keep all gate receipts after OU recoups operating expenses, but for record-keeping and statistical purposes, it will be denoted as an OU home game. Tulane gets to choose its uniform colors, but that’s pretty much it. The Sooners will be on the west sideline and in the home locker room.
“We're trying to make the game itself have a little bit more of a home game feel to it,” Castiglione said, “ … We've tried to think about some special touches to add some elements that they might have had at their home game.”
Oklahoma put tickets on sale as late as 10 a.m. Friday, which is on the rare side for a normal home game. Castiglione said seats will be sold only in the lower bowl — the upper decks are closed because the school couldn’t arrange for crowd management personnel on short notice — and not all concessions and facilities will be open.
Still, because attending an OU home game can be such a time investment for so many fans outside the OKC metro area, and because so many didn’t expect to go to the game at all, and because so many may have concrete plans for Labor Day, tickets remain available as of Friday morning — even at reduced prices.
“We didn't want price to be a distraction or a disincentive to come to the game,” Castiglione said, “recognizing all the things that you just said … as being possibilities or probabilities we would face — people wanting to go to the game, but they had already made plans to go out of town or something else.”
Season-ticket holders got first priority, then staff and faculty, then students.
“So we're still selling some tickets,” Castiglione said, “and we'll sell up to the number that we can accommodate.”
He also stressed the importance that fans download the new “Oklahoma Sooners” app to expedite their parking and entry as well as enhance their game day experience.
“Five or 10 years ago, we would’ve had to work through overnight ticket shipping or long long lines at the will call window to distribute tickets,” Castiglione said. “We didn't have this digital opportunity like we do today, and so that creates a real easy, quick means of distributing tickets to those who want to buy them. And likewise if they want to use them, or distribute them to somebody else they can do that too.”
“They need to download the new app before they get to the stadium. Don’t try to do it at the gate. But, we always know there's going to be some type of glitch, so we have people standing by to help. And we have help stations at a couple of different gates — I think five and seven.
“Parking is digital, ticketing is digital and of course, all the concessions are now cashless. It doesn't mean you couldn't walk up to a concession stand and buy something with a credit card. You can. But they are accepting cash anymore.
“So, you have the app. And if people haven't experienced how much more enjoyable that is now, to order something from one seat, and have it ready for you when you get up and walk in, enter the concourse and go in an express lane and pick it up, I mean it just facilitates an even better experience for everybody.”
Castiglione also offered a caveat for those coming to the game: it’s going to be hot. Heat indexes have been predicted to reach 105 degrees.
“With the 11 o'clock kickoff and the weather tomorrow, we want to advise people to dress appropriately,” he said. “It's going to be hot. Hydrate. And we'll have plenty of liquids available in the stadium, but we remind people that they're welcome to bring a empty, clear plastic bottle that they can fill in specially designed water stations that they can go over and fill their bottle and go back to their seat and fill it as many times as they want.
“We'll have cooling stations all over the stadium. We know it'll be hot — typical hot day — but we're excited to be back together again.”
Between the late notice, digital changes, the holiday, the heat, the masks and everything else that will go into Saturday, Castiglione acknowledges things may not be 100 percent perfect.
But compared to 2020, things are trending up.
“You know,” he said, “we're at a point where we can welcome fans back into the stadium. I mean, how great is that?”
