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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 22
Monday, October 22, 2007
On neutral sites and home-field advantage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I saw Coach Mark Richt on TV the other night talking about the future of the Georgia-Florida Rivalry on the River (the new politically correct name for the former World’s Greatest Outdoor Cocktail Party) and whether it might stay in Jacksonville.
Like most UGA folks, Richt doesn’t consider Jacksonville to be a really neutral site, other than the 50-50 split of the tickets. He expressed some support for the idea of rotating the game after the current Jacksonville contract expires, possibly between Gainesville, Athens, Jacksonville and Atlanta.
The latter, Richt noted with a grin, is certainly every bit as NEUTRAL a site as Jacksonville.
A rotation like that might end up pleasing more people than simply a Jacksonville-Atlanta rotation or leaving the game just in Jacksonville. It certainly would bolster each team’s home schedule every four years and make the site of the game no longer a bone of contention for Dawg fans.
Of course, playing the game in Athens every four years might not provide as much of a home-field advantage as the Gators would get out of a game in Gainesville. In recent years, playing Between the Hedges hasn’t really given the Dawgs that much of an edge. Sure, with some opponents, the Sanford Stadium crowd is vocal and becomes a factor, but often large sections of the stands seem more inclined to sit and wait for something to happen on the field. The noise level certainly doesn’t approach Knoxville or Baton Rouge, despite the best efforts of the UGA student section, which remains on its feet for the entire game and does its best to be a factor.
Unfortunately, not enough UGA students can get tickets to the games, a point the school’s Student Government Association made last week at that meeting of the UGA Athletic Association’s board of directors where most of the media attention was focused on plans for an indoor practice facility.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that Katie Bowers, student government president, asked the athletic association to set aside more of Sanford Stadium’s seats for UGA students. Many students who wanted to get season tickets this year only were able to get tickets for some of UGA’s home games, she told the board. She pointed out that UGA sets aside a lower percentage of its seats for students than many other schools, including Florida. About 19 percent of Sanford Stadium seats go to students compared with 24 percent at the Swamp, she said.
I know alumni support is a crucial financial component of the Georgia program’s success, but I think it ought to be a given that any UGA student who wants to attend all the football games (not all of them do) ought to have the chance to do so. It shouldn’t be all that hard to ascertain what percentage of the student body would attend if it could, and seats should be allocated for them to purchase. If they don’t buy them all, nonstudents certainly will scoop up the remainder.
It would make Sanford Stadium a much more intimidating place to play if we had more screaming students on hand.
ON THE NEWSSTAND: Sports Illustrated has come out with a special issue devoted to 75 years of SEC football, and the issue has six different covers, one each devoted to UGA, LSU, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas. Georgia’s cover features Vince Dooley, Frank Sinkwich and Herschel Walker, who probably would top most lists of the top three Bulldog football figures of the past 75 years. Herschel is one of those profiled as the greatest players, and the 1980 Dawgs are profiled as one of the best title teams. In looking at the conference’s early years, UGA tops the 1940s while the Institute on North Avenue (which no longer belongs to the SEC) ironically was the top team of the 1950s. UGA ranks third in number of conference championships with 12, behind Bama’s 21 and UT’s 13. The special issue sells for $6.99.
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