McGuirk Alumni Stadium will operate without capacity limits this fall, the school announced Tuesday.
The UMass football team will host six games at the facility, which seats 17,000 spectators. Boston College, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, UConn, Rhode Island and Maine are visiting Amherst in 2021.
It’s the first time the Eagles have come west since 1982, when Doug Flutie led Boston College. That Sept. 11 game will be the home opener and UMass’ first home game since Nov. 23, 2019, against BYU. The Minutemen played four road contests last fall in an abbreviated season.
UMass will play all of its home games at McGuirk for the second consecutive season it has hosted home games after splitting time between Amherst and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough from 2014-18.
The Minutemen averaged 9,498 fans per game in 2019 with a high of 12,234 against UConn on Oct. 26. McGuirk was last sold out Sept. 27, 2014 against Bowling Green for the first home game of UMass’ Football Bowl Subdivision era at McGuirk.
NEWASSISTANT:Mikayla Panko will join Danielle Henderson’s coaching staff with the UMass softball program, the team announced Tuesday.
Panko graduated from UMass in 2015 and spent five seasons as an assistant at UMass Lowell with Henderson. She was a member of the last Minutewomen team that won the Atlantic 10 title and made the NCAA Tournament in 2012.