UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 25
Thursday, September 25, 2008
What should be UGA’s top priority?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was really interesting seeing and reading about all the athletics facility expansion plans the architectural firm that Georgia hired came up with in its recent 16-month study, the findings of which were delivered to the athletics board on Wednesday.
The growth and the expansion of athletics faciliies — or the Facilities Arms Race as some of us have come to call it — have become as important to overall athletic success as having premier athletes, or so major Division I colleges seem to have concluded. The Bulldogs certainly are one of the nation’s leaders when it comes to facilities. They have everything they need to succeed. But many of them are becoming a little aged. So sooner are later they’ll all need to be renovated, expanded or replaced.
Certainly the most interesting to our readers, according to overnight page views, was the findings about the expansion of Sanford Stadium. With new donors having to lay out more than $10,000 just for the right to buy season football tickets this year, clearly it’s just a matter of time before they’ll need to add more seats. They have 92,746 now, which is the fifth-most among on-campus stadiums in the country.
Probably the most fascinated aspect of the study to me was the unwillingness of the board to consider closing in the West End of the stadium. I think all of us just assumed that’s what they’d have to do one day. But Damon Evans has always told me how they like the way the stadium opens into the rest of campus. And the way you can drive or walk down Sanford Drive and see into certainly is unique.
So we find out they have a plan that will allow them to expand to 101,766 seats without messing with that end. To be sure, it’s an elaborate plan that apparently will including building out and over East Campus Road and they will have to go to a lot of trouble and expense to pull it off. But clearly they’re putting a lot of time, effort and money into figuring this out.
Of course, it was a comprehensive study of all of Georgia’s facilities. Another interesting aspect was it doesn’t call for the building of a new basketball arena. That’s been heavily-debated point for as long as I’ve been around. In my opinion they missed the boat when they built the Ramsey Center over on College Station Road. But these latest plans call for extending the giant roof and expanding Stegeman Coliseum outward so they can build bigger and drastically improved rest rooms and concession areas.
There were contingencies for an indoor practice facility for football, which I’m sure coach Mark Richt noted. One plan calls for it to be on the current grounds where the track is (they’d move that) and another has it going up out on South Milledge Avenue near the softball and soccer complexes. But with the expansion of the Butts-Mehre Building already approved and halfway funded, I’m not sure how much of a priority that actually is.
So what do you think should be the top priority? Expanding Sanford? Renovating Stegeman? Blowing up Stegeman? Building an indoor practice facility for football?
Some links …
Paper calls for Spurrier’s head
You know things aren’t going well when the campus paper starts calling for the football coach to be fired, as the Daily Gamecock is Steve Spurrier at South Carolina… .
NCAA closing eyes to cheating?
Interesting take on the NCAA over at Yahoo, where columnist Dan Wetzel infers that cheating still goes on at the major college level but the NCAA is just turning a blind eye to it… .
Medical redshirt scam
My buddy Joe Person over at the State newspaper in Columbia writes an interesting piece about how coaches make up injuries for players so they can get medical redshirts for players who may have played in the first four games… .
What’s wrong with Chandler?
That’s the question the Chattanooga Times-Free Press tries to answer in David Paschall’s piece today… .
Bama targeting Peach State
You recruitniks will no doubt enjoy this piece in the Mobile Press-Register on how Alabama is targeting Georgia as its main recruiting area outside the state. One commitment from Snellville does not speak highly at all of UGA or its fans.
UGA student invades blogosphere
Adam Rosenberg is a college student who studies journalism at UGA. He has created his own Georgia sports blog and he promised he would send to me “all five of my readers” if I linked to his blog, which he calls Off The Record. Talk about an offer that couldn’t be refused! Adam is a brilliant young writer who strings for a few newspapers and has ignored all our advice to choose a vocation that doesn’t include long hours, deadline pressure and low pay. Welcome to the club Adam… .
Who to blame
Here’s a website that shows how all the AP pollsters voted for any particular team in any particular week. That way you’ll know who to get mad at if the Dogs drop again in the polls. You’ll see that ESPN’s Chris Fowler picked the Dogs No. 2 this week behind USC. So much for the conspiracy theories.
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