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Lee's Summit School District bans opposing teams' fans from football games

Football Practice
Posted at 5:41 PM, Aug 27, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-27 18:41:12-04

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — Friday night football is back in action this week, but fans aren't exactly thrilled about kickoff.

Lee's Summit North will host Blue Springs South. While fans will be limited for the Broncos, they will be non-existent for the Jaguars.

“I don’t want to lose out on memories just because they’re trying to figure things out," said Amanda Dombrowski, a Blue Springs South parent.

A day before game day, parents of Blue Springs South football players got word they will not be allowed to watch their kids play in person.

“We want them playing, this is a blessing for them to be playing. We just want to be a part of it just like other people are given the opportunities," Dombrowski said.

The Lee's Summit R-7 School District adopted the Jackson County Health Department's recommendation to limit the number of fans. Only 100 Broncos fans will be allowed to attend.

“It just doesn’t seem fair to have one and not the other," Dombrowski said.

The district's athletic director, Richard Bechard, told 41 Action News that fans will be required to wear a mask and social distance.

“We can only allow 100 fans, not counting participants and workers, so only having 100 fans has been a tremendous challenge and who gets those tickets and all those different things and just the strong feelings of people wanting to be there," Bechard said.

For every Lee's Summit North student participating Friday, each will receive one ticket to the game. For everyone else, the district said they are planning on live streaming the game.

“On games that we play outside the county, we may get more tickets because their county guidelines on their fan attendance is maybe more relaxed than ours," Bechard said. "So out people probably have better opportunity playing away from home than at home to see a football game."

Blue Springs South parents received an email Thursday from the district stating they will receive four tickets per player for home games, while visitors will get two tickets each.