Written by: Trinity Porter, Carina Negrete, Corey May, Haley Goodman, Michael Lowery and Austin Watts
Texas Tech University has a long tradition of instilling pride, culture and tradition in its students, alumni, community and surrounding areas. At the epicenter of all this is the universities’ annual homecoming week. Annually, the game attracts tourists to Lubbock and benefits the community in many ways.
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the question: What is Tech’s homecoming going to be like this year? This year’s homecoming week is scheduled for Oct. 19 through Oct.24 with the week leading up to the game against West Virginia.
For senior Tech student, Brandon Mendieta, homecoming weekend has always meant more than just school spirit.
“Homecoming week is the one week my family comes up to Lubbock in the fall semester to visit me,” Mendieta said. “I hope that with COVID now around, it won’t ruin it for me.”
Mendieta said he feels like he hasn’t seen much marketing or publicity around the event for this year.
“Usually, especially when I first got to Tech, I felt like I heard about homecoming way in advance,” Mendieta said. “This year with COVID, I didn’t even know if Tech was still having a homecoming week.”
As the semester goes on, Mendieta said he will be interested in seeing what precautions Tech will take to preserve it.
“Obviously football is the main attraction for families and alumni during homecoming week,” Mendieta said. “So as long as that is still going on, at least it will look somewhat like what it used to be before COVID.”
RC Maxfield, a Texas Tech Alumni and Guns Up Nation’s Lead Content Creator, has been covering Texas Tech University Athletics for upwards of three years. He weighs in on COVID’s effect on tourism for Tech’s Homecoming and football season in general.
“People come in waves for football season and it is good for the Lubbock economy. Of course, Tech loves the traditions but football season and big games like homecoming mean an increase in revenue for the program,” Maxfield said.
Even with Tech reducing capacity to 25%, Maxfield thinks that the biggest difference for homecoming and other big games will be the tailgates.
“It was a Lose-lose situation, but I think it was the right decision for athletics,” Maxfield said.
Homecoming usually attracts crowds for one special week. Another Tech student talks about football traditions and how Lubbock could bring in more tourism revenue.
Joshua Barraza, a junior at Texas Tech and San Antonio native said people visit Lubbock for Texas Tech and sport-related events. Prior to the pandemic, he only had four visits from friends and family within the last three years, but no visits are scheduled for this year.
Twenty-Five percent of Jones AT&T Stadium’s capacity is 15,113 fans and Barraza gave his thoughts.
“Just stay at home with your friends and watch the football game at home,” he said.
At $25 a ticket, Barraza is a student who will not be purchasing a ticket for Tech sporting events. If students who are already in Lubbock don’t plan on attending, getting alumni like Maxfield and other fans to travel for a game poses an issue for Lubbock’s tourism rates.
“I don’t know if I’ll go to a game, mostly because I don’t want to spend the money, Maxfield said, “If I got a free ticket though, I might go.”
Blake Silverthorn, who is the Program Producer at Texas Tech University Athletics, has seen his fair share of homecoming games and the tourism it attracts and spoke on the topic.
“Homecoming is generally handled on the university side, but it’s going to look very different this year. There will be no parade or So sing, which is run by the Greek organizations, and with those being gone is going to look different. I think the sentiment of the weekend will definitely be there” Silverthorn said.
Silverthorn went on to say that with the COVID-19 pandemic changing things, so has the creative side of athletics at Texas Tech. An example of this is the adaption of the annual luncheon hosted by Tech to what was a virtual commencement ceremony. This case may lessen tourism, but it is an adaptation in which players and coaches attended a question and answer session during the virtual commencement.
With homecoming generally, large amounts of tourism are expected and this year the concern remains for how social distancing will be enforced.
Chris Cook, Managing Director for Texas Tech University office of Communications & Marketing, has worked closely with Tech President Lawrence Schovanec on informing the Tech populace on proper social distancing rules.
“It’s gonna be hard because I fully expect someone to take pictures and say ‘Look, no social distance.’ but you know what they won’t capture is two minutes later someone walks by and enforces social distancing,” Cook said.
If events like these become compromised, crowds could be completely eliminated, further driving down travel revenue.
“It’s not easy, and that’s the thing,” Cook said. “That’s why you have to educate and completely pound messages because you can’t be in all places at once, and even outside of the stadium you’re hopeful that people will want to kind of police themselves and back away from one another.”
The immediate impact of reducing capacity will affect hotels and restaurants near the stadium, which usually rely on the heavy fan and tourism traffic for added revenue.
“I don’t know what the numbers are but I know it has a significant effect when you’re talking about putting 16,000 people in a stadium, 3500 of those being students,” Cook said. “You know, that is 44,000 short of your capacity. So what that affects a lot of people and out-of-towners that are coming in and you booking hotel rooms and, you know, the Overton for example.”
Earlier in the year, many local businesses and services suffered, as restrictions were enacted to enforce social distancing, many of which had an adverse effect on revenue. Now, some restrictions remain in place, but to a lesser degree, with this Spring’s struggles preparing businesses for the newer restrictions.
While homecoming week may look a lot different for Lubbock this year due to COVID-19 and the new athletic policies, students, alumni, and fans seem to have hope for a positive experience.
“I do plan on coming back to see what it’s like even though it will be a completely different environment,” Maxfield said.
As for the Lubbock community and its businesses, the effect of lessening tourism brought on by games is concerning.
Only time will tell, and with homecoming quickly approaching, eyes are on Texas Tech University and the community to create a positive and fun environment for those coming from out of town.
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