HOUSTON — Fall means football in Texas, but with coronavirus cases rising and the Ivy League announcing it’s canceling fall games, what the season will look like is still in question.
“When people spend money in a town it goes down two or three times to other people,” said Glen Brewer, the president and CEO of the Bryan College Station Chamber of Commerce.
In a new study funded by Texas A&M, more than half of the businesses said 20% of their revenue comes from college-related events.
In Houston, Rice University is set to open its season against the University of Houston on Sept. 3.
“It’s more and more difficult for me and the people on our campus to envision us starting on time," Rice Director of Athletics Joe Karlgaard said.
There’s been no decision to push back the season yet, but there’s more to consider than just protecting players.
“It’s about the safety of our staff, our coaches and then our contribution to our community if this were to get out of hand, how we are contributing to the spread of the virus?" Karlgaard said.
It may still be too soon to decide, but from Brewer's perspective, some games are better than none.
“Frankly, we will take what we can get. We’re ready to go and we are going to do it as safe as we possibly can, but we need to get people back to work and they need to earn a paycheck and pay their bills," he said.
There’s also been talk about pushing games off to the spring, however, Brewer told us he doesn’t think all of the businesses who depend on football would survive.