While Memorial Stadium will be quiet on the Saturday when the Huskers were set to open the football season, business leaders are hoping fans will keep the tradition of gamedays alive in Lincoln.
The Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau, together with the Downtown Lincoln Association and the Nebraska athletic department, plans to launch a "City of Red" campaign.
Business leaders are hoping fans will not only wear red on what would normally be fall football Saturdays, but also spend green, buying Husker apparel, supporting bars and restaurants and staying in Lincoln hotels.
"Downtown Lincoln thrives on energy, and our resilient businesses are up to the task of keeping our community safe and entertained during the fall season," said Todd Ogden, president and CEO of the Downtown Lincoln Association.
Without the normalcy of a football schedule — the Huskers were to face Purdue on Saturday before the chaos of the pandemic led the Big Ten Conference to call off fall sports — businesses are having to get creative to draw in the fans who typically would come to Lincoln with or without NU tickets.
For example, Tavern on the Square, a bar in the Historic Haymarket, plans to show four Nebraska games from the 1997 championship season on Saturdays this fall, beginning with the Nebraska-Missouri "flea-kicker" game Sept. 12.
On its Facebook page, The Graduate Lincoln says it plans to celebrate Memorial Stadium's 375 consecutive sellouts with rooms going for $37.50 per night per person, plus passes for $3.75 drinks at area bars.
Business leaders are putting together a website, , where fun events and weekend specials will be posted throughout the season.
"With many Husker fans' calendars already containing holds for gameday weekends this fall, it is time to be creative and explore new means of gameday weekends in Lincoln," said Jeff Maul, executive director of the Lincoln Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Lincoln stepped up in the spring to help our restaurant sector and now it is our turn to continue to dine out, but also help out our hospitality and small-business partners across the city."
A 2014 study done by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Bureau of Business Research found NU athletics, as a whole, had a $245.5 million economic impact on the city, supporting more than 3,400 jobs and $87 million in worker income.
The numbers for football alone (based on eight home games, plus the Spring Game) were $44.8 million in spending outside the stadium, supporting $14.8 million in wages.
Until home games return to the schedule, businesses will be facing losses, which trickle down to employees and put a crimp in tax revenues that fund city budgets, Pinnacle Bank Arena and grants to encourage tourism.
It's why business leaders hope fans can re-create the gameday vibe, even without games being played.
"Red displays our passion, inspires us and most importantly, unites us," they said. "Though football season is canceled, our Husker spirit is not lost."