Tech-Georgia in Dome? Talks ‘preliminary'

By Doug Roberson and Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia and Georgia Tech have been approached about moving their 2011 game to early September in the Georgia Dome but both schools say talks about the possibility have been strictly preliminary.

"One-hundred percent informal discussion," Tech athletics director Dan Radakovich said Wednesday.

Atlanta Sports Council president Gary Stokan has proposed having the arch-rivals meet in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game to start the 2011 season.

Georgia athletics director Damon Evans has been non-committal on the idea, saying previously that his initial reaction was "Hmmm, that's interesting," but adding that he wasn't sure discussions would lead anywhere.

"You never close the door to any opportunity," Evans said, "but I don't want this to come out saying, ‘Damon is looking to move the game.' "

The 2011 Tech-Georgia game currently is scheduled for Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium, and Radakovich said the Jackets would be interested in moving that game to the Dome only if the 2012 Tech-Georgia game –- scheduled in Athens – were played at Tech.

"The whole reason we are trying to have any of these discussions is to try to move our schedule from a circumstance" where home games against Virginia Tech, Clemson and Georgia fall on the same years, Radakovich said.

"If we can go to a 2012 Georgia Tech home game [against Georgia], 2013 Georgia home game [against Tech], then that becomes a good circumstance. It creates a more even flow of revenue."

He said such a shift would amount to a "one-year interruption" in the Tech-Georgia game's home-and-away rotation  by playing at a "neutral site" in 2011 and then resuming the alternating  schedule at Tech in 2012.