How Jacksonville kept the Georgia-Florida game

Atlanta Sports Council President Gary Stokan, whose latest success was attracting the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta, knew the University of Florida would have no interest in moving the game. So he made his pitch to UGA: Move one game out of four to the Georgia Dome, leaving the others in Jacksonville.

In a Sept. 17 letter to Georgia athletics director Damon Evans, Stokan offered a "guarantee to equal Jacksonville's financial benefits" and argued that UGA should bring the game to Atlanta for a variety of reasons:  "the economic windfall" it would generate, "home state pride," "fair play" and "enhanced media exposure."

And he argued that playing the game in Atlanta would provide a "psychological advantage to Georgia over Florida," which has won 16 of the past 19 games in the series.

"As the athletic director, your job is to provide the best opportunity and atmosphere to win," Stokan wrote in the letter to Evans,  a copy of which was obtained by the AJC under the state's Open Records Act. "Take a poll of your coach and the 72 players from the state of Georgia and see how many would rather play their arch-rival in their own backyard of Georgia in a facility called the Georgia Dome."

A week later, Evans recommended to the UGA Athletic Association's board that the game remain in Jacksonville for six years beyond the end of the current contract in 2010. UGA President Michael Adams endorsed the recommendation. The board unanimously agreed.

Adams and Evans said they considered Atlanta's bid but found no cause to tinker with the tradition of a rivalry that has been played in Jacksonville for all but two years since 1933.

Evans called the game and site "part of the fabric of college football." Adams said "overwhelming reasons and overwhelming sentiment" would be required to move the game. Evans rejected Georgia's recent record against Florida as a reason for relocation, noting that the Bulldogs historically have won more games in Jacksonville than the Gators have (40-35-1).

"I think the consensus was, it's not broken," said Peyton, the Jacksonville mayor.

The Jacksonville-or-Atlanta  issue has stirred much debate among UGA fans with the camps seemingly evenly divided. "Everyone seems to have a strong opinion about it," said Canton insurance agent Trummie Patrick III. His own opinion:  Jacksonville is the right place.

"I'm happy they left it in Jacksonville for the very reason of what I'm doing right now," he said by cellphone Thursday. "Here I am in this car with three generations of Trummies driving to St. Simons for the weekend."

His father, Trummie Jr., 64, was in the backseat, headed to his 39th  Georgia-Florida game. And 17-month-old Trummie IV was headed to his first.

"It's a family tradition, right along with the tradition that is Georgia football," said Trummie III, 34. "We love it."

This was the second time in Evans' five-plus years as athletics director that he faced a contractual decision about the game.

"My first go-round with this, I was a new AD, I wasn't going to move that game, just from the fact I hadn't been around long enough in the position to do that," he said. "But this time I really had to give it a great amount of thought, and I did. . . . When I looked at it all in all, I really went back to what this game has stood for for so many, many years –- the history and the tradition."

Evans told the athletics board his recommendation was not driven by finances.

There wasn't a lot more for Jacksonville to offer in a new deal, given that the schools already are paying only $1 in stadium rent -- down from $100,000 at one time -- and splitting the proceeds from ticket sales for an annual net of $1.67 million each.

But there were a few things.

One argument for occasionally moving the game to Atlanta was that easier travel gives the Gators a competitive advantage in Jacksonville. The Gators' bus ride to is 70 miles; the Bulldogs' bus goes farther than that just to get to Atlanta's airport.

Jacksonville's solution: Starting next year, the city will pay for three private 50-seat planes to fly the Bulldogs directly from Athens to St. Augustine, where they stay the night before the game, and back to Athens from Jacksonville postgame. Georgia values the perk at about $120,000 per year.

In other changes to the contract, which is being finalized,  UGA executive associate athletics director Frank Crumley  said Jacksonville agreed to reimburse each school $50,000 toward costs of hotels and meals, increase each school's parking allotment from 1,000 to 1,500 spaces and give the schools more of the money from marketing rights.

For its part, Jacksonville considers the game a winning deal, attracting about 100,000 people to the city -- roughly 20,000 of whom don't have tickets -- and generating $25 million to $30 million in annual economic impact.

"No mayor would want to be presiding over the departure of this game," Peyton said. "It is one of the high points of our calendar year. . . . It's a wonderful downtown festival, one of the more exciting things we do."

For Atlanta, not getting the game was a disappointment but not a shock, Stokan said.  While Atlanta has won more than its share of sports events and attractions, it has known defeat, too. It failed, for example, to land the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which went to Charlotte, and the 2009 and 2010 Super Bowls, which went to Tampa and Miami, respectively.

The Georgia-Florida game "would have been a great boost for the city," said Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau President William Pate, peripherally involved in the effort. "So we were disappointed but understand that Georgia has to make the decisions best for the university."

"Because of the challenge to all the tradition and all the history, I knew this was more of a long shot," Stokan  said.  "But I thought there truly was an upside to playing here. I thought it would make the rivalry even bigger. And I truly believe that in Jacksonville, Georgia is playing a road game and Florida is playing a home game. . . . But I felt like we got a fair shake."

Stokan then asked a reporter when the new Jacksonville deal will expire.

Told 2016, he said: "Hey, if I'm anything, I'm persistent. I'd like to take another shot at it in 2017."