Take a look at this chart the guys at Roll Bama Roll posted:
This is why Greg Sankey is hailed as a genius. And why Mike Slive was. We’re crazy about college football, so much so that we’re willing to pay through the nose for it.
It’s also why ESPN is able to call the shots as it does, even as it cuts against the grain of why we fans in the South make the SEC the powerhouse that it is.
Five of the seven most expensive tickets for SEC games this season are at pro venues, places wholly removed from the campus experience: Virginia Tech-Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway; Alabama-USC in Dallas; the World’s Largest Outdoor Sexual Harrassment festival in the Jaguars’ house, etc. And, it particularly makes no sense when the two teams at a neutral site already have gorgeous palatial stadiums, insane fans, and picturesque campuses — the LSU Tigers should not be traveling to Lambeau Field to meet the Wisconsin Badgers. Alabama fans should be able to see Traveler cross the midfield as the Trojan plants his gladius at midfield.
Is there anyone among Sankey’s bosses who cares about that? As long as the checks keep rolling in, I doubt it.
One more thing regarding those neutral site games — Georgia loses a home game to play in Atlanta, where the tickets are a relative bargain at $207 a pop. Will there be a pro rata reduction in the student athletic fee to make up for having one less game in Athens this season?
Get The Picture 
Student Athletic Fee.
Ha!
Sic em Senator!
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Sarcasm detector was working Senator….my guess is that McGoofy would reply with something like “Heck, we don’t give the alums a break in their Hartman fund contribution requirement with one less game, so it’s only “fair” that the students pay the full amount of the activity fee. Anything less would require us to tap into the reserve fund, which is like taking money out of your 401k, blah, blah, blah”.
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This made me laugh this morning
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What? No openers in London or Paris? just you wait.
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BC vs. gtu in Dublin. I believe gtu is offering a package of 4 tickets, 4 Guinness’s, and 4 potatos.
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Schools schedule these “neutral site” games because of one thing, money. If the school was going to lose money relative to a home game, they would not do it. The athletic department’s marketing arm manages to convince the fans the neutral site game is somehow “prestigious” and they should pay more for the privilege of losing a home game.
For me, a good part of the appeal of attending a Georgia game is going back to Athens. If I want to see a game in the Georgia Dome or the Dallas stadium, I will go see a pro game.
These “neutral site” games are nothing more than the further “NFLization” of college football.
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And students pay through the nose for one of the precious few student tickets for those neutral site games if they’re lucky enough in the lottery.
I would much rather have the Tar Heels come to Athens and return the favor in Chapel Hill in two of the most beautiful venues in the college game and two of the best college towns around.
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Chapel Hill- where they read poetry, wear powder blue and serve wine and cheese at the tailgate.
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Kenan Stadium is a beautiful stadium.
Sure, the real Carolina people don’t care about football, but I would rather go there for a game in September than to the Dome. As someone who lived in the Triangle for 14 years, Chapel Hill is a damn good college town.
I guess I’m a “Get off my lawn” type, but I just think regular season college football is meant to be played on campus rather than these NFL stadiums (the WLOCP excepted because the game was always played on that site). Notice that Texas and Oklahoma haven’t moved the Red River Shootout to Jerry World even though they could get another 20,000 seats. They’ve kept it in the gritty old Cotton Bowl … Texas State Fair and all.
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My money and my daughter went to Chapel Hill. I went to Keenan for parents weekend to watch Miami destroy the boys in blue in front of 45,000. UGA fans would enjoy a home and home vs Chapel Hill, but I’d doubt they’d travel well to Athens.
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It doesn’t sound like they are going to travel well to Atlanta either. UNC put their unsold ticket allotment up for sale to the public a couple of months before the AA put the remaining seats for sale in Athens.
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+1 I wish the old Gator Bowl was still around, too.
One of these days I’m going to the Red River Shootout in the Cotton Bowl. Last time I was there it was 8:50.
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One thing to keep in mind here, the reason that UGA-UF tix are so high is because the supply is miniscule right now. Nobody has tickets in hand, so nobody can list what they have. Therefore, once people get them in, you’ll see the prices drop like a rock. Happens every year as there has only been a matchup of 2 ranked teams with a lot on the line once since 2008 (that would be 2012). I am sure that a lot of these other neutral site games are much the same since a lot of people won’t know what they have until they get them in.
To put it into perspective, UF season ticket holders/donors can order UNLIMITED tix to the game in Jax.
Another thing to consider, the face values are getting outrageous so naturally the price is going to be even higher on the secondary market.
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I sold a pair on Stub Hub last year for $550……….
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