ATLANTA – There is obviously a different feel to the annual “Worlds Largest Cocktail Party” this year thanks to the showdown between being played inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, compared to its usual home in Jacksonville.
Between the normal tailgate experiences that take place over the 24 hours to kickoff and the overwhelming feel of tradition for this showdown that happens on a yearly basis, it’s actually the fans who are feeling a bit underwhelmed by the game being played in Atlanta this season.
Thanks to ongoing renovations at EverBank Stadium, which is home to the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, this highly-contested game is calling Atlanta and Tampa home for the next two years.
Sure, there isnt much either team can do about its usual venue, with the game scheduled to return in three years along the Florida coast.
But fans of both teams were hoping that the opportunity to play this rivalry game in both Athens and Gainesville over these two years would have been on the table for the first time since the 1994 and 1995 seasons, which was also due to renovations in Jacksonville.
“I don’t really understand it, though I know it comes down to money,” Andrew, from Ocala, told OutKick. “It would have been pretty cool to make the trip to Athens and experience what it’s like to play this game in a home stadium.
“Honestly, I think they fumbled an opportunity to do something different. Where the heck are we supposed to tailgate here in Atlanta Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for the actual game, but I think we’re going to be missing out on the normal tailgate fun that we usually host in Jacksonville.”
Money, you say? Yes, it comes down to the almighty dollar.
If you were under the impression that these neutral site games were going away in favor of more home-and-home series in college football, I think you’re forgetting about how much each team is paid for these types of games.
When both universities put this showdown up for sale, the offers started pouring in. Sure, it helped that Atlanta is the home of the SEC Championship game (that could be ending this season), but it also came down to how much Falcons owner Arthur Blank was willing to pay each team to play this game inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment, which runs multiple venues and events for the city of Atlanta, is paying each school $7.5 million to host the, while the city of Jacksonville is paying $1.5 million each over the next two years for their promised return to Florida.
Each team also received 29,071 tickets for this game, so it should still look like the annual showdown in Jacksonville. But, obviously that would not have been the case if this was played in Gainesville, with SEC guidelines noting that each visiting school receives around 4500-6000 tickets.
Starting to see why this game was never going on-campus? It should be noted that only the home team would see the revenue generated by this game if it were to have been played in either Gainesville or Athens.
When you factor in the cost of staging a game like this, it makes more financial sense to keep it at a neutral site.
But, that doesnt take away the frustration from some fans who made the trip to Atlanta.
“I just don’t care for another game inside this darn stadium,” Thomas, a Georgia fan, told OutKick. “Hell, we should just turn this into
