2,500 UGA fans denied Arizona St. tickets

Athens — Demand was so strong for Georgia’s allotment of tickets to this week’s game at Arizona State that only fans who had contributed more than $27,000 to the Bulldogs’ athletics program were eligible to buy them.

Requests for the 7,300 tickets available through the Georgia ticket office were filled in order of applicants’ lifetime contributions. The cutoff: $27,007.

About 2,500 requests were denied.

Many of those fans, plus others, found alternative ways to get tickets for Saturday’s game in Tempe, Ariz.

“This has been one of the hottest away-game tickets for us in a long time,” Georgia athletics director Damon Evans said. “I heard a lot of Georgia fans have bought tickets through Arizona State. I heard some people have purchased Arizona State season-ticket packages to get to that game.

“Fans are very resourceful in finding ways to get tickets. It is absolutely unbelievable, the excitement of the Georgia fan base in getting out there.”

Arizona State announced several weeks ago that the Georgia game had sold out, but says it doesn’t know how many Bulldogs fans bought tickets directly from the school.

Bulldogs won’t be tourists

More than 10 million tourists visit the Phoenix area each year. Georgia’s football players will not be among them.

“It’d have been nice to maybe … do some sightseeing and all that,” Richt said. “You wish our guys could see more than maybe the horizon and the hotel and the stadium, but that’s probably all we’ll see.

“It will be a business trip for us, for sure.”

The Bulldogs will fly from Atlanta to Phoenix on Friday afternoon. Richt said there’s nothing more than meals, meetings and sleep on the team’s itinerary until it buses to Sun Devil Stadium for the game.

The Bulldogs will fly back to Atlanta late Saturday night. Richt estimates the team will arrive in Athens between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Sunday.