Game on. WMU Says 100% Capacity This Fall At Waldo
Western Michigan University has announced that fan attendance at football games this fall at Waldo Stadium will be at 100% capacity, with no restrictions.
That is good news for the home opener on Saturday, September 11th, which has traditionally been most attended game of the season, tied to Comm-University Day. There's nothing listed yet on the WMUBroncos.com website. Given the need for precaution through the pandemic, the school could be taking a wait and see attitude regarding any kind of fan promotions. While vaccination rates are slowly creeping up, still there are coronavirus infections happening in the Kalamazoo area.
After opening at Michigan on September 4th, Illinois State's Redbirds will be in Kalamazoo on September 11th. Then the Broncos head to Pittsburgh to play Pitt, before returning to Kalamazoo, to finish out the month of September with San Jose State on September 25th.
The month of October means the start of the MAC conference schedule. The first conference game is October 2nd in Buffalo. Then Ball State and Kent State come to Waldo Stadium. A trip to Toledo follows that. And then the ESPN2 part of the schedule kicks in with the Central Michigan game on November 3rd. Following that it's three Tuesday night games, Akron and Northern Illinois at Waldo in November, and a trip to Ypsilanti in between.
Waldo Stadium's capacity is approximately 30,000, and during stretches, especially in the early 1990's, Waldo has been filled beyond capacity. With the announcement of the Empowering Futures Gift, and the return to live events, maybe those capacity numbers will be tested again.