Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced on Thursday morning that coronavirus restrictions on outdoor gatherings on June 1. This means that outdoor venues, including Michigan Stadium for football games, will be able to resume hosting fans at 100 percent capacity.
All other COVID-related restrictions, including mask mandates and limits on indoor capacity, will lift on July 1. Businesses and entities will be given the license to make decisions on masks and capacity limits at their own discretion.
Michigan Athletics has not announced a plan for this fall yet, as they were awaiting state and local government guidance on how to proceed. Now that a date has been set, there should be more information coming out in the next several weeks about how they will proceed.
As we all move to a state of normalcy and crawl closer to the end of the pandemic, this is a sigh of relief for people looking to resume their summer and fall traditions in 2021. People can (and will continue to) argue the process, but everything that all of us have been through appears as though it will materialize with the return of college sports in person.
The pandemic is not over and there is a lot of work to do, but it looks like we will be able to make our way to Michigan Stadium, Crisler Center and more in 2021. That is a lift a lot of people have been looking forward to.