Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox has sounded the alarm over “dire economic consequences” if college football is either not played or played with in-person attendance restrictions this coming season.
Maddox told CBS 42, “It would be economically catastrophic for Tuscaloosa if there is no football season.”
“Even a mitigated football season with restricted attendance and number of ball games would have dire economic consequences,” he advised.
A 2017 economic impact report released by the University of Alabama advised that the Crimson Tide’s seven home football games from the 2014-2015 season had a total statewide impact of $173.3 million, an average of $24.8 million per game. For Tuscaloosa County alone, this average impact was $18.8 million per home game for a total impact of $131.5 million.
While President Donald Trump has previously expressed his desire that Bama home games at Bryant-Denny Stadium safely be able to occur at full attendance capacity this coming season, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, raised eyebrows across the country last week regarding 2020 football prospects.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci told CNN. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
Fauci’s comments are mainly being covered in terms of the upcoming NFL season.
Trump has also pushed back on the White House adviser’s comments on the subject, saying Fauci “has nothing to do with” football being played or not.
The SEC allowed voluntary in-person athletics activities to resume, at the discretion of each university, on June 8. Alabama’s football program has begun a phased-in resumption of activities under SEC and NCAA parameters, which have been carefully crafted with input from health care experts.
Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has consistently advocated for Alabamians to follow proper social distancing and sanitation procedures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All of us want to make sure we play football this fall. And to make that happen, we must be sure we stay at home if we have symptoms, wash your hands often, follow all social distancing guidelines and please wear a mask anytime you’re around other people,” Saban said last month.
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Football is not nearly the only way Tuscaloosa relies on the Capstone. In a previous CBS 42 report, Maddox explained that the university finishing this past spring semester online had a negative economic impact of more than $500 million on the city.
The mayor reportedly said the University of Alabama is “everything” for the local economy.
The university recently released its reopening plan, which will have students back on campus for the fall. This is important for Tuscaloosa as a whole, per the mayor.
“The University has an over $2 billion economic impact,” Maddox outlined. “And in early March when 27,000 students who live out of state left Tuscaloosa that was an over half a billion economic impact to our community. So there couldn’t be a better time to see students come back.”
Maddox was the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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