ATHENS — There will be a lot of newness to take in when Georgia plays its home opener Saturday at Sanford Stadium.
First, there is the stadium itself. The 95-year-old facility has an expanded capacity of 93,033. That’s the result of a two-year, two-phase renovation project that represents the 11th seating increase for the stadium since it was constructed as a 30,000-seat venue in 1929.
There is a new field on which the Bulldogs and Tennessee Tech will compete, and they will scrimmage between brand new hedges. UGA replaces the playing surface every year on Dooley Field. The double row of English privet hedge surrounding it, though, underwent its first replacement since the hedges had to be removed after the 1995 season in order to host men’s and women’s soccer for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. The top of the fence that clandestinely runs though the hedges can still be seen in some spots.
There are a bunch of new spaces throughout the stadium as well. The $63 million second phase of the most recent construction project connected a five-story structure to the west end of the existing facility’s south side. That new section will house a two-floor press box and add six premium-seat suites from a perch beside the western end zone. The media had to be moved from the Dan Magill Press Box, which was located on the south side’s club level for 57 years, so that space could be converted into what’s now known as the “The 1929 Club.” It will be occupied Saturday by about 200 of Georgia football’s largest donors, who had to have reached seven-figure giving levels just for the right to pay an extra $7,500 per ticket to sit there.
And, finally, there will be beer stands all over the place. UGA, for the first time in its existence, will offer game-day beer sales to spectators inside Sanford Stadium. It has been offered for several years in private suites and designated donor areas. But Saturday will represent the first time that fans can walk into the stadium two hours before kickoff, venture to one of the 162 point-of-sale locations scattered throughout the concourses and put down $10 to $12 for a beer. Spectators may also choose a seltzer, but wine and liquor will not be available.
Georgia will utilize a “crack-and-go” system in which concessionaires simply open an aluminum can and hand it to the purchaser. Alcohol sales will be cut off at the end of the third quarter, and the Bulldogs do not expect to run out before then. UGA will have 100,156 cans of beer on stock for the first game, according to marketing director John Bateman. The school expects to sell approximately 45,000 beers per game this season and projects to generate $1.3 to $1.4 million in revenue per year, Bateman said.
Fittingly, there will be thousands of additional toilets and bathrooms to accommodate all that liquid consumption.
Amid all that newness will be a Georgia team that looks a lot like the past several. That is, the Bulldogs will jog out of its tunnel from the locker room as the Associated Press No. 1 team for an SEC and school-record 24th consecutive week, dating to Oct. 9, 2022. After opening the season as the nation’s consensus No. 1 team in all available polls and rankings, Georgia’s status as national favorite was further fortified by the Bulldogs’ 34-3 win Saturday over then-No. 14 Clemson in the Aflac Kickoff game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The vibe surrounding this week’s matchup is decidedly less anticipatory as Georgia’s opponent hails from the FCS. If one can find a betting line on the contest, it has approached 50 points in the Bulldogs’ favor. Georgia fans on Saturday will witness a proverbial “pay-to-play” game. UGA stroked the Golden Eagles (0-1) a $550,000 check to come to Athens to serve as a bridgeway between that high-profile season opener and a road trip next week to face the Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC opener in Lexington, Kentucky.
For that, coach Kirby Smart was making no apology.
“Does he still want the check?” Smart cracked when told Tennessee Tech coach Bobby Wilder wasn’t particularly excited about playing the nation’s No. 1-ranked FBS team on the road.
Such cross-divisional matchups might soon go away. The strength-of-schedule component of the new 12-team College Football Playoff coupled with the growing need to provide marketable entertainment for donors on whom Georgia and programs like it are increasingly dependent has made playing an overmatched opponent less desirable for everyone involved.
“Everybody wants to pigeon-hole me as far as ‘Kirby believes in these games’ or ‘Kirby doesn’t believe in these games,’” Smart said. “I believe in the sport of football. I don’t want to see us lose programs because they can’t sustain without financial help. I want to support that. I also want the financial support of our fan base. If you poll them, they’d rather us play Clemson or Notre Dame or somebody like that every week. I support that as well.”
Accordingly, what you get from Georgia in games such as this one is a host that’s not looking to beat up and embarrass its guest. In their past 10 games against opponents over which they were favored by 40 or more points, the Bulldogs are 0-9-1 against the spread. Don’t expect such beatdowns from Georgia as other SEC teams such as Ole Miss displayed Saturday in a 76-0 win over Furman.
More likely, fans will get only brief appearances from star players such as quarterback Carson Beck, safety Malaki Starks and wide receiver Arian Smith and extended views of players occupying positions on Georgia’s second- and third-team offenses and defenses. For that, you’ll also get no apology from the Bulldogs, as such a philosophy has served them well during a stretch in which they have won 47 of 49 games dating to the end of the 2020 season.
Meanwhile, there will be no let-up from the Georgia players that happen to be on the field at any point in Saturday’s game.
“Shoot, we have the same vibe every week,” sophomore linebacker Raylen Wilson said. “We’re going in there to beat somebody for four quarters. We don’t really look at the team we’re playing. It’s really about us and being better than we were last week.”
Georgia has several players who either are still nursing injuries they brought into the season or incurred during the Clemson game a week. Those include players such as defensive linemen Warren Brinson (calf) and Mykel Williams (ankle), who were hurt against the Tigers, and Jordan Hall (leg) and Xzavier McLeod (unknown), who have yet to practice or play at all this season.
The question about whether star running back Trevor Etienne, the Bulldogs’ highest profile offseason transfer, will play loomed unanswered coming into this week, as it did in Week 1. ESPN reported at the beginning of Saturday’s broadcast that Smart told them Etienne would not play because of a suspension for violation of team rules. Nevertheless, Etienne dressed out in full uniform and ran plays with the No. 1 offense during pregame warmups, only to stand idle on the Bulldogs’ sideline throughout the game.
Smart insisted that was not gamesmanship on his part and stuck to his self-prescribed edict of not discussing player suspensions with press or fans. “It’s not something that I share or talk about,” he said of Etienne’s availability.
So, whether Etienne plays is a good reason to at least watch the broadcast via the SEC Network’s streaming option. But showing up at Sanford Stadium to experience all the new amenities is a good option, too.
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