There are a lot of people excited about watching the Buckeyes practice this coming Monday night. Planned to be held in the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, the coaching staff probably expected a moderate crowd of hard core fans and their offspring. With the hype and expectations of fans this year, I don’t know what they were thinking. Opening the practice to the public is one thing. But throw in an autograph session before practice starts and free parking and you’re asking for problems. There’s now way they can fit everyone that shows up in the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
The JOMS has a capacity of about 10k people. That’s approximately how many people will show up before 10 AM (the autograph session doesn’t start until 7). So now it appears that the powers that be have wised up and changed the practice venue. It looks like it will now be held at The Horseshoe. I haven’t found any links to the change, so I may be completely wrong here, but it might be something to keep in mind if you’ve been on the fence (either way) about going to the practice. It should be a good time and a great chance to see how the Buckeyes are progressing.
Okay, that was fast. BuckeyeXtra.com has confirmed the change:
The location for Ohio State’s open practice and autograph session Monday night has been changed to Ohio Stadium, the OSU department of athletics announced today.
The event originally was scheduled to be held in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. The change is being made to accommodate the large number of fans expected to attend.
Gates will open at 6 p.m., and a one-hour autograph session with the players and coaches in the stadium concourse will start at 7. Practice will follow at 8 and continue until about 9:45.
The Owens stadium has a capacity of about 12,000, including standing room. The original plan was that if that figure was reached, the gates would be closed.
Autograph seekers will be limited to one item per player.
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