Air Force officials aren’t expecting any abnormal security issues for fans attending games this fall at the academy.
AFA athletic director Hans Mueh said Thursday he expects access to Falcon Stadium, as well as to Clune Arena at Cadet Field House, would remain open even if raised security levels caused officials to close the remainder of the military base to civilians.
“We probably would go back to the system used right after 9/11, if necessary,” Mueh said. “We would allow public access only on roads leading to the facility. All other roads would be blocked to public access.”
Air Force has home football games Sept. 30 against New Mexico, Oct. 7 against Navy, Oct. 12 against Colorado State, Oct. 28 against Brigham Young, Nov. 11 against Notre Dame and Nov. 18 against Utah.
Falcon Stadium has a new FieldTurf playing surface that covers about 90 percent of the stadium floor. Natural grass remains near the walls.
“We’ve found that the natural grass areas have a cooling effect on the FieldTurf,” Mueh said. “I’m not sure we’re going to be in a hurry to fill in the natural grass areas.”
Falcon Stadium’s new sound system, part of a $1.3 million facility project, won’t be installed in time for this season, so portable speakers will be used in the interim.
Mueh said he is pushing to move the AFA athletic department to a civilian 501C3 company and away from the auspices of the Department of the Air Force.
“We want a setup similar to how Navy operates its athletic department,” Mueh said. “It would give us much more flexibility on how we operate and getting things done.”
Channel set
The Mountain West Conference’s sports channel – The mtn. – will be assigned 411 on the Comcast digital classic package. Starting at the end of the month, CSTV, the parent network for The mtn., will move to the digital tier, retaining its channel 412 assignment.
The CSU-Weber State football game Sept. 2 in Fort Collins will be the first live event carried by the new network.
Footnotes
CSU’s 9 a.m. scrimmage Saturday is open to the public. … Rams coach Sonny Lubick said he liked the performance of the offense during brief goal-line work Thursday morning. The Rams practice twice today.
