There has been a drastic change to Stamford High’s football schedule. As many of you may know, night games have been cancelled for the rest of the season due to an excessive amount of altercations at these football games. The change to the football games is understandable because it puts unnecessary stress on our security staff–our administrators have the best interest in mind and want to assure that we are safe at these events; however, I still believe that the tradition of having the Pink Out and Senior Night games should be followed seeing as these are amongst the last few games our seniors will be able to attend.

In the past, while the Pink Out game was still held on a Friday night, an estimated 1000 fans would attend this football game. Moving this game to a Saturday afternoon can decrease the audience to around 500 fans or even less. It is easy to say that students would not enjoy coming back to school on a Saturday afternoon to watch a football game because weekends are meant to be spent out of school with friends and family. We must also think about the parents of the athletes. It is not uncommon for parents to work on Saturdays, meaning that some will have to sacrifice watching their children play in one of their last football games in their high school careers. Changing the start time to noon on a Saturday will potentially reduce the number of fans that will attend the football games–thereby leaving them unable to attend.

With attendance being cut down, fundraising will potentially suffer too. A great number of Stamford High students purchase Pink Out merchandise specifically to show school spirit and support the school. Since less students will be attending the football game, the sale of this merchandise will inherently decrease, as well. With less profit comes less donations; Stamford High School has been a continuous supporter to Stamford Health and The Bennett Cancer Center, however, Stamford High will be donating less money, this year, to these health centers due to a possible drop in attendance. While there are efforts being made to offset the loss in profits, such as activities and games in the baseball field, I don’t think it will be enough. It is also important to note that the money made from the concession stand located on the football field will be making less money this year, as well. It is fair to assume that the money made from the concession stand goes back to Stamford High School, but with the changes being made to the athletic schedule, a clear conclusion can be drawn that Stamford High will be making even less profit this athletic season.

Senior Night has been what every senior has looked forward to since they started playing a sport freshman year; that special moment when student athletes get their names called and they step forward on the field. The sudden change to the athletic schedule has clearly demonstrated to bring more detriments rather than benefits–the buildup of excitement to be a senior athlete is lacking more than ever.

Our administrators have complete reason to want to keep these altercations at a minimum during the games, but there is a solution that brings benefits to both parties in this situation; a possible solution is properly assigning a number of security guards at these events, so that there are enough to monitor the audience. We often see an insufficient number of security guards that are expected to be able to monitor the large audience at these sports events. Precaution is important and respected, but changing the athletic schedule only takes away the slither of normalcy students have in this dreadful COVID-19 era.