Some of you no doubt don’t want to hear about it, but Marc Weiszer has some details from the new contract being ironed out between Florida, Georgia and the City of Jacksonville:
• Jacksonville will pay Georgia up to $300,000 in 2010, $330,000 in 2011 and $363,000 in 2012 and 10 percent more each year of the contract to charter three 50-seat passenger jets to transport the football team, coaches, administration personnel and other official traveling party members from Athens to Georgia’s chosen destination (St. Augustine) and back.
That’s on top of the $50,000 that each school will get to offset travel expenses, which include hotel costs and meals.
• The City of Jacksonville would have a “right of first negotiation,” under which the schools can negotiate with one another for an extension to play in Jacksonville beyond 2016. The schools are allowed to negotiate starting 10 days after the 2014 game through June 15, 2015. After the June date, the schools can negotiate with other cities to hold the game. Atlanta has been a suitor to land the game on a rotating basis.
As previously reported, control of the marketing assets to the game would go to the two schools instead of being split three ways with Jacksonville. The deal also will ensure that the Duval County Agricultural Fair near the stadium won’t be held at the same time as the game to avoid additional traffic.
And for Atlanta to get into the conversation, here’s the key threshold it’s going to have to cross:
… Georgia nets about $1.6 million annually for the Florida game compared to $2.8 million for a home game that is rotated home and away with SEC opponents.
Now if they could just write something into the contract about the weather…
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UPDATE: Tim Tucker reports on another interesting provision in the contract.
Georgia and Florida would have expanded opportunities to market their annual football game, including the right to sell the name of the game to a corporate sponsor, under terms of a contract still being hammered out with the city of Jacksonville.
I’m ready to pass the hat right now, so that we can officially name the sucker the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Who’s with me?
Get The Picture 
I’m relatively neutral on this issue, but if the game is going to be in the Dome, no way in hell I want it in Atlanta…
Give me a home and home before we resort to that.
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I got 5 on it
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Think about the branding opportunities!
“Budweiser Presents the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on CBS”
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Budweiser hell, Maker’s Mark presents the WLOCP. Tell it like it is.
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I like the deal, both financially and traditionally. Would not favor a home and home, or ever including Atlanta in future deals. This is one of CFB’s great traditions and I am proud UGA is a part of it. We will regain our winning ways in this series; the geography has nothing to do with who wins this game.
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You are right, geography has nothing to do with who wins this game. On the other post showing the 1976 victory, Georgia was two touchdowns behind at the half. In 1981, we were on our own five yardline, late in the fourth quarter, and by sheer will (and Herschel) we slowly drove the length of the field to win. We KNEW we were going to win! After the game, as happened many times in that era, Florida fans yelled that we would not be so lucky at Florida Field, if only the games were not in Jax.
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You guys are deluding yourselves. The WLOCP is a home game for the Gators. They have a home field advantage and guys like you who put being “part of one of CFB’s great traditions” (meaning a drunkfest”) ahead of winning are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The programs are on equal footing with each other regarding everybody else both teams play yet the Gators win this game all the time even through coaching changes for both schools. WTF do you think causes that? Now, if I am reading the $ info above correctly UGA would actually make MORE money if the game was home and home. We now put our team in a less advantageous position to win and it COSTS us money. How can anyone justify continuing this debacle? Are you willing to let this drag on the way it has for another 20 years?
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Mayor, how do you figure that one year of $2.8 million is more than two years of $1.6 million? Georgia wouldn’t get paid in the years the game would be played in Gainesville…
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Hey, I’m only in local government. However, if I was in the Federal government like the Senator I would understand financial concepts like deficit spending and thereby be more financially sophisticated. Even if I am wrong on the $ we need to stop doing this for the sake of winning the game and I stand on that principle. Also, if I understand the size of the teams’ respective stadiums correctly (and I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong) there are more seats in both schools stadiums than in Jax Mun. Stadium so more fans could actually attend the games. Also, if there are more seats, howcome the numbers are the amounts presented in the article? Something doesn’t add up.
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Sorry, Mayor, but your argument doesn’t hold water.
When we were whipping the Gators’ butts in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, it sure wasn’t a home field advantage for them. And, Jax has the 2nd biggest Bulldog Club in the country.
As far as the $$ is concerned (and as I understand it), we get $1.6 million EVERY year under this contract. If it goes home and home, we get $2.8 million every OTHER year (the years the game is in Athens), or an average of $1.4 million per year. Seems to me that we get more on an annual basis to keep the game in Jax.
I believe my classmate Damon Evans would move the game in a heartbeat if the Jax contract didn’t put more $$ in the UGAAA coffers than a home and home would.
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“Now, if I am reading the $ info above correctly”
You aren’t.
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Putting aside the issue of how much $ the teams make or would make if there was a venue change (I think I can safely say that everyone would rather win the game than simply make a few more bucks, anyway) I still have not heard anyone give an explanation about why UGA loses to FLA almost every year in this game, other than the FLA homefield/UGA away game explanation. Somebody enlighten me. I have an inquiring mind and have got to know. (Please don’t give me any limp-dick BS about “manning up”).
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I think we have lost to the Gators over the last twenty years because they have been significantly better (they have had three national chamionships and have been SEC Champs eight times). Florida has also dominated LSU and Tennessee over this same time period. Most games have not been that close (Zeier in the rain, 2002, 2003, 2005 without Shockley are the exceptions). Also, when we dominated, Florida often played Auburn the week before. That was a big advantage for us.
I do not believe in karma, but we were awfully lucky to win some of the games we did under Dooley. The 10-7 miracle in 1975 and the 1983 10-9 victory that we had no business winning come to mind, not to mention 1980. THAT game was completely over before “it” happened.
Also, like I mentioned in my previous post, I constantly heard Florida people say that we could not beat them in Gainesville every other year. That was nonsense. Now that the shoe is on the other foot……..
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What part of “neutral” don’t you understand Mayor? Equal ticket split, same size field, travel expenses more than handled, etc., we have ZERO excuses regarding the location. It would be more unbaalanced in a home and home because there is no comparison which field is more home team friendly, not even close.
I don’t think you understand the definition of “limp dick BS” either. It is whining about the effect of 2-5 hours of time in an airplane for 20 year old athletes (which you do regularly), and excusing the lack of performance on a completely neutral field which has worked just fine for us in previous times. I know you will hate this but, time to man-up Mayor.
My first conversation with Steve Spurrier was about this very subject. He said every booster club meeting he went to after taking the UF job he was told the Gators had to get that game out of Jax because they just couldn’t win there. I guess fans everywhere have problems facing the reality that sometimes you just get your butt kicked, or your players come up a play short. My memory goes back further than 20 years, and I don’t let florida fans define the time period the series must be viewed in. Our players need to hear the fans behind them, not excusing poor performances in advance.
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What say you about the turnaround of the Iron Bowl series since Auburn got it out of “neutral” Birmingham in favor of home and home?
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I know a lot less about the Iron Bowl, but from my limited observation I feel Auburn began winning when they had superior talent and coaching. I also think they will begin losing to Bama again since the scholarship limitations have been lifted, Dubose and Shula are gone for Saban, and Tubbs has left Auburn.
All rivalries tend to run in cycles, Alabama was just a superior football program most of the time the Iron Bowl was played in Birmingham. They were not clearly stronger when it went to home and home this Auburn enjoyed some success. Florida has held the upper hand on UGA lately, and has enjoyed more Bye weeks. I don’t think location has disadvantaged UGA at all.
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Spoken like a true “fan” who likes to go to cocktail parties in Ponte Vedra more than he wants the Dawgs to win. The truth is you don’t know if the away game situation (it is in Jacksonville, FLORIDA 400 miles from Athens after all) has an effect or not. If there was only a 5% chance that the venue was affecting the outcome a true Dawg fan would be for moving the game to eliminate any chance of a disadvantage. But, no, you have too much fun with your cronies in J-ville to give a rat’s ass whether or not the Dawgs win the game. And as for all those years you say the Gators were better because of the championships they won, if UGA had won the WLOCP the Dawgs would have won a lot of those championships instead of the Gators. It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy with guys like you.
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Mayor,
Couldn’t agree with you more. The golf and fall vacation crowd cares more about the “tradition” and party then they do about the good of the program. They haven’t quite come to grips with the fact that the UF of the 70s and 80s isn’t ever coming back.
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Mayor, they could have played the last two games in Mark Richt’s back yard and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference.
Seriously, what I love about assertions like yours is how substance-free they are. Who can argue with your scare quotes when there’s no factual basis for them to analyze?
Me, I’m hard pressed to see how any of the last five games – two routs of historic proportions, a Georgia win, a game featuring a true frosh QB up against the best defense in the conference and a game in which Georgia was missing its star quarterback/MVP – would have turned out differently if played in Athens, especially given the fact that Georgia suffered at least one embarrassing loss at home in every one of those seasons. Maybe you can explain to us what would have been different.
Whining about travel or the weather is little more than a convenient crutch for those who don’t want to face the ugly truth. It avoids dealing with the real issue, which is that in most of the last 20 seasons, those losses have mounted because of coaching and/or talent.
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It already IS The WLOCP. Unless something better comes along, it always will be. To me, this is something that can not truly be bought and sold. You may be able to sell the right to call it something on TV and radio and in the newspapers, but under all that, it has become the WLOCP, and only the fans can change that.
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But I’d pay a few bucks for the amusement of having it as the official name with promos all over CBS for weeks and during breaks in the game.
“CBS is proud to present the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”
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It’s a home game for UF every year. So long as y’all are willing to overlook that, we’re bent over.
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I disagree. It’s a 90 minute bus ride for them to get to Jax.
It would be no different if the game was played in the GA Dome. It would be a 90 minute bus ride for the Dawgs then.
Would you call that a home game for us? I wouldn’t.
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Uh, yes, that would be a home game for us. Just like every time we play in the SECCG or Chick-fil-A bowl it’s a home game for us.
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Definitely in favor of pitching in to make it the WLOCP again. Keep me posted.
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“I’m ready to pass the hat right now, so that we can officially name the sucker the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Who’s with me?”
I wish I was a billionaire so I could make this happen.
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I don’t make a ton of money, but I’d certainly throw in money to buy the rights to name it the WLOCP. Now we just need someone to set up an LLC.
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