After driving only 45 minutes and playing in front of a crowd that’s nearly 20 percent Utah fans, it’s hard to call the Utes’ biennial trip to Provo a real away game. Nonetheless, LaVell Edwards Stadium will feel a long way from home for the folks in red, both on the field and in the stands.
All 64,300 seats in BYU’s stadium were spoken for by early August. The vast majority of those tickets went to the 40,000 Cougar season-ticket holders. BYU students claimed 14,000, and 1,200 were held for Utah to distribute. The remaining 9,100 tickets were then sold on a first-come, first-served basis at the BYU ticket office to fans of either blue or red blood.
Because the game will be played during both schools’ Thanksgiving break, having the necessary staff on hand will be a challenge for the BYU events department. Although the stadium might have to stretch to have enough ticket-takers and ushers, it is not cutting any corners when it comes to security.
“We need extra security because of the nature of the game,” said David Miles, assistant director of special events at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Miles says the stadium’s biggest concern is athlete and fan safety.
“It’s not like this is a brawl waiting to happen,” said Miles, a former BYU football player and old friend of Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “The extra security is to protect the field after the game.”
The worst nightmare for any stadium security staff happens, ironically, when the home team wins a close game and celebrating fans take the field to tear down the goal posts. One student was killed during such a postgame celebration at the University of Minnesota in October 2005.
“People love to express their emotion more on (the BYU-Utah) game than any other game,” Miles said.
The BYU security staff will have all hands on deck to avoid any similar outcome during the aftermath of one the nation’s most acclaimed and passionate rivalries.
“There are a lot of people that take this game very seriously, but most people enjoy just a good, spirited competition,” Miles said. “It’s not something we need to call out the dogs for.”
The Nov. 24 contest will be the last of six home games for BYU this season, five of which sold out.
Despite the addition to their workload and the stress that goes along with hosting the state’s biggest game, Miles and his staff are looking forward to feeling their stadium shake under the feet of 64,300 of the some of the most intense sports fans in the world.
“It’s fun to have it at our place,” Miles said. “It’s gonna be full, it’s gonna be loud.”