Following the lead of health officials and the University of Tennessee, the City of Knoxville and Knoxville Area Transit have adopted several COVID-19 public-health protocols that will change how many University of Tennessee fans take part in home football games this fall.

UT has prohibited large tailgate parties on campus, and UT-sponsored tailgates are not occurring this season.

(Visit https://utsports.com/sports/2019/7/29/football-gameday.aspx for complete rules for small gatherings on campus and protocols inside Neyland Stadium.)

Safety precautions are being extended to City-owned facilities as well.

The Vol Navy will be limited to boats stacked two deep at the City-owned Volunteer Landing and Vol Navy docks. In a typical season, boaters often tie off from one another in extended rows, and fans socialize in close quarters and walk across each other’s boats.

As the Knox County Health Department has reported, social gatherings of family and friends have been a leading culprit in the spread of COVID-19. The limit in stacking of boats at City docks is aimed at minimizing the spread of the virus as much as possible by reducing the number of people congregated at the docks.

Boaters may dock on a first-come first-served basis. However, the City’s public docks are intended for transient boaters and not for long-term docking, so the City asks that boaters do not moor at the public docks for more than 24 hours. 

Here are some dos and don’ts:

- Be considerate of boaters already moored at the docks. Ask permission to tie off or cross another boat to get to the dock.

- Wear a face covering if you enter another person’s boat. When physical distancing is not possible, wear a face covering, even outdoors.

- If you do not have a ticket to the football game, please do not moor at a City dock on Game Day. With reduced capacity, please leave the docks available to fans attending the game.

- Move your boat after each game so that the docks are accessible to other boaters during the week.

- If you are concerned about strangers wearing face coverings crossing your vessel to access the dock, please consider beforehand whether you are comfortable bringing your boat to the game.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will be monitoring activities at the City’s docks.

Also to reduce the size of large gatherings, no tailgating will be allowed in any City-owned parking garages or surface lots.

Game-day parking rates range from $10 to $40 and have not changed from last year. Click here –  https://knoxparking.com/rates.html#game-day-rates – for details.

And with KAT buses running at no more than 50 percent capacity, as a physical-distancing protocol to stop the spread of the virus, KAT is not providing game-day shuttles this year.

UT’s first home game kicks off at noon on Saturday, Oct. 3, against the University of Missouri.