And another reason why the WLOCP needs to stay in Jacksonville

This one’s a little less flippant than the one in my first post on the subject today.  David Hale links to this Atlanta Business Chronicle story on the city of Atlanta making an effort to attract the Georgia-Florida game to the Georgia Dome.

Aside from this ludicrous statement –

ACVB’s Pate said he thought the Georgia-Florida game could draw 100,000 people to Atlanta, because many visitors without tickets come to tailgate.

– as if there’s a tailgating equivalency with the parking capacity around the Dome compared to that in Jacksonville around the Stadium-Formerly-Known-As-The-Gator-Bowl  – here’s the part that caught my eye.

Pate said he thought whatever gap existed between the size of the stadiums in Jacksonville and Atlanta could be made up financially. “No one’s going to move for less financial impact,” he said. “You’d have to pull together all the right things. … I’m confident the gap could be closed.”

I can only think of one way to do that.  Yep, we get another tradition mucked up and pay more for the privilege of doing so.  Oh, and does anyone have any idea what the new cutoff figure would be for getting tickets?

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UPDATE: Mr. Swindle’s not too thrilled with the idea, either.

Because Florida would be slower on artificial turf. It would be a great idea to move the Cocktail Party up the Georgia Dome, because it would be just like the Cocktail Party except you’d have to tailgate under an piss-stink overpass strewn with the remnants of a homeless shantytown around you, you would pay even more exorbitant fees for parking, take away the pleasant weather and riverside setting in Jacksonville, take an outdoor game inside, remove at least half of the vibrant tailgating scene in total, eliminate any semblance of playing a game halfway between the two constituencies, get the city of Atlanta involved in planning this thing (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO), and take a tradition and heave it to the trash for no particular reason whatsoever. Except for all of those things, it is a spectacular idea.

What he said.

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Low gets Dawgy.

ESPN.com’s SEC blogger Chris Low visits Athens and punches out a series of posts about the program, if you’re interested.

• Stafford looks like Adonis at Pro Day.
• Clint Boling talks about the offensive line.
• Everybody’s got confidence in Joe Cox, including Stafford.
• Mark Richt thinks SEC coaches have a lot of respect for each other.  Let’s see what he’s got to say about that after this year’s SEC Media Days.

Kiffin watch: let’s give ’em something to talk about.

Mike Hamilton, UT Athletic Director, on that guy running his football program:

“I think that we’re going through this window in time where (Kiffin) is getting more attention than he probably wanted. But at the same time Tennessee football is being talked about and that’s not all a bad thing.”

Again, when did this inferiority complex strike the Vol program?  Why are these folks so needy for attention all of a sudden?

If Junior doesn’t work out, and it’s being talked about that UT craves, here’s my suggestion for his successor.

The Dear Head Coach? (photo courtesy Boston Globe)

Wouldn’t that get everyone’s attention!  “Tennessee joins the Axis of Evil” – now there’s some golden publicity.  And you’ve got to figure that Kim Jong-il has been itching to get into American college football ever since he saw this.

Another reason why the WLOCP needs to stay in Jacksonville

Because it will mean one less occasion every other season for Verne Lundquist to mention this.