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Dear Yosef Club members,

We hope you are healthy and safe. While we prepare for what will undoubtedly be a unique and challenging fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to provide a few updates on what we know as of today.

While several Division I, II and III conferences have announced that they will not play fall sports, the Sun Belt Conference leadership has decided only to postpone the start of fall sports to Sept. 3 and make any additional determinations upon further evaluation of a number of scenarios with guidance from health experts, government leaders and Appalachian State University officials.

The Yosef Club remains committed to its mission to provide financial support to enhance educational and athletic experiences, opportunities and the overall wellness of Mountaineer student-athletes. This situation is fluid, but we continue to plan for safely hosting football games and other sporting events on campus this fall.

Your support is as important and appreciated as ever. We thank you for your generosity and ask that you continue to help us navigate these uncertain times and be positioned to emerge from this pandemic as strong as we possibly can.

Football scheduling

Due to recent decisions by the MEAC and Big Ten, we are actively looking for opponents to replace the Morgan State and Wisconsin games. Everyone who has had or will have an opening for those dates is a candidate. We have had conversations with several schools about a number of different scenarios and will let everyone know when we have new agreements. We remain hopeful to play a full football schedule, but everything is subject to change based on guidance from health experts, government leaders and university officials.

Football tickets

We are modeling various scenarios for seating capacity, including what 50 percent capacity would look like. Our priority from a seating standpoint will be App State students and our season ticket holders, and we are modeling stadium seating for social distancing. We will keep you updated on specific developments as we know them.

In the event that season ticket holders are unable to use their tickets for one or more games, we will have a system in place for you to donate your ticket(s) back to App State and receive priority points. More details on ticket donations will be forthcoming.

We do not anticipate selling single-game tickets this year. We anticipate that away game tickets will be limited in supply, and we will communicate updates with those season ticket holders who have already purchased.

If any portion of the 2020 App State football season is canceled, we will work with each season ticket account holder who purchased tickets directly through App State Athletics to accommodate one of the following options:

Option 1: Use any applicable credit toward 2021 football season tickets

Option 2: Use any applicable credit toward additional Yosef Club priority points

Option 3: Prorated ticket refund

Game Day Experience

Some of the game day experience that will be affected by public health protocols could include concessions options; restroom protocols; social distancing in the stands; concourses and premium areas; and limited sideline access.

Pregame Hospitality

In light of increased health and safety concerns and logistical challenges, we will not be offering pregame hospitality at football games this year. We are still determining our ability to offer hospitality at men’s and women’s basketball games.

Football Alumni Tailgate

This year’s annual football alumni tailgate that was scheduled for Sept. 5 is canceled. We look forward to resuming the annual tailgate for our football alumni in 2021.

I take it as positive. At this point anyway.

Yes it does sound positive at this point - I know someone pointed this out several weeks ago that WVU had its game with Maryland cancelled the same weekend of our Wisconsin game - I don't know if this is even being considered by either university - however my guess is that Neal Brown might not be too open to playing the APP Mountaineers ---

This is definitely encouraging and I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but this letter does give us some insight of what is going on behind the scenes. We see that many scenarios are in the mix and one thing that I did find interesting is that they are actively seeking fill ins for the 2 current canceled games so far. I was thinking that it might just be conference games this year if any.

I was excited to see the email. Seems like they want to do whatever they can to have a football season, safely. I don’t care where they put me in the stadium, as long as I’m there.

I don't expect anyone but students to be allowed in the stadium this season. If that's what it takes to be able to play college football games, I'm fine with it! I'd hate to see these seniors miss out on this season.

I don't remember what our Yosef club numbers are as far as tickets, I'm sure someone on here does, but last I remember it wasn't a lot, like 3k? I could be wrong. But 3K Yosef club plus the usual 10k for students and that comes out around %50 capacity.

Boone Goon wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 28, 2020 11:00 am

I don't expect anyone but students to be allowed in the stadium this season. If that's what it takes to be able to play college football games, I'm fine with it! I'd hate to see these seniors miss out on this season.

I would think the NCAA will do the right thing and give waivers to the seniors who don't have a season. I hope they do at least. A lot of kids could benefit from that. Even gives them an additional 2 semesters to finish their degrees if they won't be done by the spring.

I don't expect to have our usual 10-12k students during the Covid-era. Quite frankly I think enrollment itself is going to suffer so immensely that 10-12k would be like 75% student attendance, which is high even for us.

The REALLY puzzling thing to me is the fact that they've shut off season ticket sales for 2020. (https://tkt.xosn.com/tickets/TicketLand ... M_ID=21500)

If we're limiting attendance to season ticket holders and students we finally have some leverage to sell season tickets. I guess you don't want to be seen as "taking advantage" but this is the only way someone who isn't a current season ticket holder or student can go to a game. I feel like many people will be SOL if they don't allow season ticket sales. Maybe they will once they get an idea of who is going to opt-out for Yosef Club points. Or maybe we have more season ticket holders than we thought. YC membership isn't required for a few sections. There are almost 3,000 members of YC. I assume almost all of those have season tickets to football.

The Panthers are doing something similar for our PSL's. They're allowing you to opt in or out, get a full refund if you opt out, then once they see how many people opted in, decide on whether all PSL owners will be admitted to every game or if they'll have to split it up to account for social distancing.

Secondary market sale ability is a question I still have for both the Mountaineers and Panthers.

Thanks makes sense Gonzo, the only reasoning that I could think that season ticket sales have been shut off is due to not having a firm seating plan yet, or just not knowing if any games will definitely need to be refunded or optioned out for points. It sounds like they are trying real hard to make it happen and maybe as you said more YC tickets will open up later and this will be a good incentive to become a member.

I also think it's because you reward those that had season tickets before this happened, not those that bought at the last minute to get in and probably won't buy next year.

BUTCH1991 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 28, 2020 1:05 pm

I also think it's because you reward those that had season tickets before this happened, not those that bought at the last minute to get in and probably won't buy next year.

But we need the money. I really don't think they would ever do anything to punish the less financially loyal members of the fanbase, especially not during this crisis.

As soon as we find out exact spacing requirements/exact capacity and take an inventory of all season ticket holders intentions of coming/not coming I fully expect they'll resume season ticket sales. I don't expect the final inventory to approach 50% of the normal capacity even with an optimistic prediction of student attendance. I hope these numbers are settled soon. Note the language on the bottom of the season ticket page:

"If you would like to be placed on the waiting list to purchase, please use the email address below and include your name, address and phone number. athletictickets@appstate.edu If you are interested in The North Endzone seating, please call (828) 262-3108 or e-mail: yosefclub@appstate.edu."

I bet people on the waiting list will get tickets. It was just disappointing for me to actually see that door closed when every ticket sale is so precious. I guess you just can't risk promising season ticket holders access and then selling too many.

Stonewall wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:41 am

I take it as positive. At this point anyway.

It is the best that can be hoped for. I think a future email will be cancelling the season, or at minimum cancelling fans, but I do want to be wrong on both of those point.

It might be worth getting season tickets now and then getting a refund if family budgets require that since a refund is possible.

Having 'bubbles' (like MLS, NHL, & NBA) is the only way to do this safely. The MLB is showing exactly what can, and will, happen. Football just isn't a sport where this can be done safely. This is a band-aid until the cancellation (or moving to spring) announcement happens. I agree with McLeansville, I want so badly to be wrong but I just don't see how both NFL, and college kids, are going to be able to not transmit this back and forth throughout the week, leading to games being postponed or canceled.

Deano wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 28, 2020 11:27 am

I don't remember what our Yosef club numbers are as far as tickets, I'm sure someone on here does, but last I remember it wasn't a lot, like 3k? I could be wrong. But 3K Yosef club plus the usual 10k for students and that comes out around %50 capacity.

I think the 3K YC membership is correct but each member may not buy season tickets and other members purchase more than 1. Like I'm the member in our household for YC but I buy 4 season tickets. I seem to recall that we normally sell about 7K in season tickets...but that's based on my sometimes faulty memory.

"Due to recent decisions by the MEAC and Big Ten, we are actively looking for opponents to replace the Morgan State and Wisconsin games. Everyone who has had or will have an opening for those dates is a candidate."

Which means we'll get Gardner-Webb and Mars Hill as replacements. Just kidding.
Just glad to see us have at least some semblence of a season. Some aren't.

I believe that the fan aspect for football games is irrelevant. Too many players and teams to be in a bubble. Young guys won’t live in a bubble so it will spread. Miami Marlins are the example of how it is going to go. Team A will go play at team B, return home with at least one positive case. Then team B also faces exposure and the whole thing is a mess.

In terms of season tickets, didn't we have around 8,000 last season? I recall seeing back in the spring we had sold 6,500 for this season. So if we use 7,000 as a rough figure and allow 7,000 students, that would put us around 50% capacity, depending upon the capacity number used.

Several Yosef members I know also have multiple tickets. I and the guy seated beside me have 6 each for our families. I too remember last year being 6500+

Back when we all could go - I bought 6 season tickets each year -