For the first time in the modern era of the rivalry, next year’s game of Clean Old-Fashioned Hate will not be played at Bobby Dodd Stadium or Sanford Stadium.
Georgia Tech announced Tuesday that its annual, end-of-the-season football game with Georgia has been scheduled for Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025. The contest is part of a six-year contract Tech signed in 2021 with AMB Sports and Entertainment and Mercedes-Benz Stadium that requires the Yellow Jackets to play at least one game per season at the downtown Atlanta venue.
Tech stands to make a guaranteed $10 million from the game with UGA in 2025. The 2026 matchup is slated to be in Athens, and then the game will return to Bobby Dodd Stadium in 2027.
“Moving this game to Mercedes-Benz, we absolutely took that seriously, did not take it lightly and certainly understand that there will be fans that won’t like it, that will be skeptical,” Tech athletic director J Batt told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. “At the end of the day, the chance on the revenue lift and the fact that our partners (AMB Sports and Entertainment) were able to lean into this with us and allow us to achieve better ticket priority — and the fact that this is a great venue. It’s not Bobby Dodd, but this is this the home of Super Bowls, College Football Playoff championship games, World Cups, international concerts, etc. This is a big-time venue.”
The Yellow Jackets (5-2) host No. 12 Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. They lost to Louisville there in 2023, lost to Clemson there in 2022 and beat North Carolina there in 2021. The matchup for Tech’s game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2026 has not been announced.
Playing Georgia a mile and a half from its home venue is a calculated move for Tech, Batt said. Bobby Dodd Stadium will still be undergoing renovations (due to the athletic program’s Full Steam Ahead fundraising initiative) and the construction of Bobby Dodd Stadium’s new Fanning Center, at the corner of Techwood Drive and Bobby Dodd Way, will still be ongoing.
But Tech’s ability to bring in a $10 million payday was the biggest driving force behind the unorthodox move to change the venue for one of college football’s iconic rivalries. The game has been played at Bobby Dodd Stadium for more than 100 years and at Sanford Stadium for almost 100 years.
“At the end of the day, we’re embarking on the next era of college athletics, where new revenue sources being created become more and more important as we move forward,” Batt said. “As we looked at this, we owed Mercedes-Benz (Stadium) and (AMB Sports and Entertainment) a game already for next year. We leaned into it together as a partner. … If you think about it, it’s approximately five times the normal amount of single-game incremental revenue that we would achieve from having that game in Bobby Dodd. So, if you think about the alternating schedule, it would take us a decade to realize that amount of revenue that we’ll achieve in one game.”
Season tickets for Tech’s 2025 season went on sale Tuesday, but the Tech-UGA game will not be part of that package. Tech season ticket members will have higher priority for seating assignment for the Tech-UGA game compared to previous Tech games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Tech season ticket members at any level will have the opportunity to purchase tickets, and their seats will be assigned only following Mercedes-Benz Stadium suite and club ticket holders. Atlanta Falcons personal seat license holders will also have the opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public.
Tech and Georgia meet this season on Nov. 29 in a rare Friday night college football game. The No. 5-ranked Bulldogs have beaten Tech six straight times. The Jackets haven’t won a game in the series in Atlanta since 1999, and Batt is very much aware moving the game to a larger venue away from Tech’s campus could allow opposing fans to infiltrate what should be a Tech home game.
“I’d put it to our fan base to fill it with white and gold,” Batt said. “That’s the best way to prevent that.”
Tech is also scheduled to play at Colorado and at home against Temple and Gardner-Webb as part of its 2025 nonconference schedule.
Brent Key, Georgia Tech’s second-year coach, was asked Tuesday about Clean Old-Fashioned Hate moving to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“How many days away?” Key deflected the topic as he discussed the upcoming game against Notre Dame. “I’m excited that we were able to get a deal done and for it to be able to be beneficial for us.”
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