Many schools in the ACC and SEC have begun to release stadium capacities for the upcoming season. Among those teams are the Georgia Bulldogs. On Tuesday, the SEC announced that everyone in attendance would have to wear a mask and that individual schools would decide on attendance numbers, as well as tailgating policy. On Wednesday, Georgia announced their ticketing capacity for 2020.
Georgia Bulldogs Attendance Capacity Announced
The Bulldogs will allow between 20-25% of the stadium’s capacity into the game. That brings Sanford Stadium’s capacity from 92,746 down to between 18,550 and 23,190. That is a pretty significant drop-off from the typical Georgia home game. It presents a challenge for Georgia administrators, as the Hartman Fund donors alone reach roughly 16,000. The school is also planning on still allowing students into games.
Distribution
The majority of tickets are to be given out based on your donor status with the school. For a typical 2020 Hartman Fund donor, you will be allowed to attend one game with a block of up to four seats. To be in the Hartman Fund tier, you must donate between $275 and $4,999 this year. For those who donate over $5,000, you can attend two games with the same four block of seats. The highest donor tier offered is a $250,000 and above tier, which should get you into all four home games for the Georgia Bulldogs this season.
Additionally, these tickets will be given out based on The Georgia Bulldog Club priority points. This is the same system used to assign tickets to road games and postseason games. Basically, donors receive one point per dollar donated. The more you donate, the more likely you are to get the game you request. However, the university is offering triple points to anyone who refunds their Hartman Fund contribution or season tickets and then applies that to the Covid-19 UGA Athletics Fund.
This system means that the tickets to the first two home games of the season will be a very hot commodity. The Auburn Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers will likely be hugely sought-after tickets for donors and students. The late-season home games will still be tough to get a seat for, but nothing like those first two.
Away Games And Home-Field Advantage
As for away tickets, such as the game against Alabama, only 500 away game tickets are made available. All 500 are set to be distributed to families of the student-athletes. So, if you are trying to get into the Georgia-Alabama game as a Georgia fan, good luck. It will be no small task trying to find one being resold for anywhere close to a reasonable price.
With these dramatic changes for the year, it will be interesting to see how much of a factor home-field advantage is this season. On one hand, you have fewer fans in attendance, so it likely will not be as loud. On the other hand, basically everyone in attendance is a home fan, so you won’t see any of the Georgia takeovers that we have seen in the past. It may take a couple of weeks to see this full impact. It may take all season. But that is one of the most interesting things to keep an eye on.
The reduction of the Georgia attendance capacity will be an interesting balancing act for the school to try and allow as many season ticket holders to as many games as they can. The reduced capacity could end up being one of the many interesting bits of news off of the field to follow.
