We’ve known this day would be different for some time now — Nebraska’s first home football game of the season when almost all of the fans were shut out from attending.
It was still stunning to see what that looked and sounded like when a game wouldn’t bring more than 90,000 people to Memorial Stadium, and the restaurants and parking lots downtown.
During a 10-minute drive from home into downtown Lincoln about one hour before kickoff — past four parking lots usually filled with tailgaters, past the Embassy Suites where the patio and dock are usually bustling, past a still-closed Barry’s — there wasn’t a single thing I saw or heard that told you a major college football game was being played soon just a few blocks away.
Whoa.
The first sign of a game wasn’t until I entered the Embassy Suites. Two people in Nebraska garb sat at a table drinking a cocktail and a beer.
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Usually, the first floor of the hotel on gameday is loud and exciting and another scene for football recruits to see how much football means here.
Across the street, at The Kindler Hotel, an employee in a Husker polo cleaned the sidewalk. That hotel was built with days like this in mind, but on Saturday morning it was quiet outside.
I was assigned to observe a gameday in Lincoln when attendance was mostly limited to the families of the players. It was pretty quiet.
There were no whistles of police directing traffic. No sound of the Cornhusker Marching Band marching to the stadium.
Fans mostly followed the advice of officials to not travel to the UNL campus, and parking lots on campus were closed to the public. Event staff and security outnumbered bystanders.
There was more traffic downtown, but not a lot. The patio of one restaurant had the game on TV, but nobody was watching. There were about 300 people watching the game outdoors in The Railyard, but most fans were seated and it wasn’t the wild scene from some past games.
Some restaurants added outdoor seating and set up extra TVs but didn’t have a lot of takers during the game.
Only a few people who didn’t have passes to the game came to the stadium. Two fans stood outside the northwest corner of the stadium on a patch of grass where they were able to view the HuskerVision screens inside the stadium and watched the game that way. The man had a big smile after Nebraska took a 10-0 lead, and looked around like he wished he could high-five someone.
Another fan (unsuccessfully) asked a few people if they had extra passes to get inside the stadium.
Two different fans stood outside of the northeast corner of the stadium near the track where you can look inside through a fence. There's only a partial view of a few parts of the field, but that was enough for them on this odd day.
Stadium Drive was closed to vehicle traffic, just like normal.
Before the game, families of the Nebraska players entered the stadium, some arriving just a few minutes before kickoff. Some brought their own food and drinks like they were going to a youth game.
A recorded version of the Cornhusker Marching Band pregame show still played, “Now is the time for the marching red experience.â€
A few students walked past the stadium headed in the direction of downtown. One joked about his NCard (student ID) getting him into the game.
There was still a one-plane flyover after the national anthem. Two people on bikes rode down Stadium Drive, a nearly impossible task on a normal gameday.
There were still a few fireworks after Nebraska’s first score, and some red balloons released on a windy day.
Outside the stadium, the soundtrack of the day was the fake crowd noise being played over the stadium speakers.
A quiet, odd gameday.