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 one.

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 the season ranked No. 2 last season, has been ranked No. 1 in a number of early preseason polls for this season.

The downside for Georgia is those individuals who have never had renewable season tickets and donated below that figure, didn't get their tickets. They will be refunded by the end of the month. Georgia refunded more than 9,000 ticket requests in each of the last two seasons.

"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 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, only 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."

Donations for Georgia's ticket-priority go into the William C. Hartman Fund, which is the athletics department's single-largest revenue producer.

"It goes toward scholarships, first and foremost, to help us educate our student-athletes," Evans said. "It also helps us provide resources for our student-athletes to compete not only athletically but academically. We have to compete with our peer institutions not only in the conference but in our country."