PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University announced Tuesday that home football games this coming season will be at 100% capacity, beginning with their first game of the season on Sept. 4 against Utah State.
"You kind of realized late last summer how much a part of who you are is going to Pullman," recalled fan and CougCenter podcast host Michael Preston.
WSU's football games last season had no fans in attendance and their spring game, due to increasing Covid rates in Whitman County at the time, also did not have any fans.
"You’ve pent up all this Pullman energy for two years and you need to get it all out," said Preston. "I would advise that people don’t get it all out at once. That’s going to be a lot. But I think it’s going to be a lot of that same energy you get in a normal year, it’s all pent up because you missed seven home games last year and now it’s all going to come out. I think it’s going to be a really glorious feeling."
Preston all expects to have some feelings overflow, especially when the school plays Andy Grammar’s song “Back Home” in between the first and second quarter.
"Oh god. Just the crying and the waterworks and the blubbering and the hugging of people who I do not know, even though that’s probably not great given everything we’ve done over the past 15 months," said Preston said with a laugh.
Or, maybe it is.
"To have something that’s kind of close to normal again, or even normal, will be a relief," said Preston.
Group tickets go on sale for football games beginning July 12, single-game presale tickets go on sale for Cougar Athletic Fund members and current football season ticket holders on July 19, and single-game general public tickets go on sale July 26.
WSU will have seven home games this season. Those games are:
Utah State- Sept. 4, 8 p.m.
Portland State- Sept. 11, 3 p.m.
USC- Sept. 18, 12:30 p.m.
Oregon State- Oct. 9, TBD
Stanford- Oct. 16, TBD
BYU- Oct. 23, TBD
Arizona- Nov. 19 (Friday), 6 p.m.