Athens —- Say you're a new Georgia football fan and you just decided this year that you wanted to order tickets for the upcoming season. If you were that person, it would cost you a donation of $10,651 for the right to buy tickets.

Then you would still have had to buy the actual tickets ($240, or $40 per game).

At least a few people made that choice this year, which happens to be one of the Bulldogs' most anticipated seasons in a long time. Georgia, which finished No. 2 in the rankings last season, is No. 1 in a number of early preseason polls.

"Obviously, there's a lot of excitement surrounding our football program, and that's a positive. We're glad people have such an interest in the University of Georgia and our football team," Georgia athletics director Damon Evans said. "But at the same time I know it's tough on individuals out there that would like [to] become a part of it. We'd like to accommodate everybody that wants to come, but unfortunately we're not in a position to do that. We're grateful for the commitment that our fans have to this program. They go above and beyond what we have to do to be a part of the University of Georgia."

According to UGA ticket manager Tim Cearley, 698 tickets came open this year. He could not immediately say how many new requests they processed that will go unfulfilled but acknowledged it is a customer service challenge.

"When you're issuing this type of news to people and the expectation level is where it is and the demand is where it is, you're always worried about what the response will be," Cearley said. "This is just Day One and it's only a couple of hours old, but the initial response has been fairly favorable. But the development staff handles the majority of the calls."