Two words guaranteed to make you nervous: UGA and scooters.
Players who park in an unauthorized spot risk get parking tickets. History shows there is no preferential treatment of athletes: Jarvis Jones, in the midst of one of his All-American years, once had his car towed.
Such stories are commonplace among players.
“I try to stay away from (driving), because those parking tickets, they rack up pretty quick,” sophomore tight end Isaac Nauta said, grinning.
So many players use scooters, and generally like it. But it also comes with risks: Baseball player Chance Veazey was paralyzed in a motor scooter accident in 2009. On a much smaller scale, Ray Drew got in a scooter accident as a freshman in 2011, hurting his arm and missing a week of practice.
Like any student, UGA spokesman Claude Felton said, football players are required to purchase a UGA parking permit. Houston, who arrived at UGA just after Veazey’s accident, went to the DMV and passed a motorcycle driving test, out of an excess of caution.
Houston heard talk of building a parking lot where the turf practice fields were located. But that idea was nixed when they decided to build the indoor facility on the football grass fields.
Athletics director Greg McGarity was asked whether, when the indoor facility was planned, any consideration was given to creating parking for players. McGarity declined to comment, referring to Felton, who said that “given the lack of space in our footprint, that was not a consideration.”
Sounds like the kind of thing that can change if Smart starts winning big and makes demands.
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UPDATE: For you tough guys calling the players snowflakes…
https://twitter.com/Jhuck07/status/898175833344532484
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UPDATE #2: One last point from Seth bears careful review.
But what the story was trying to convey a situation that not a lot of people are aware of, and that, believe me, is discussed a lot among players, coaches and staff. I’m sure Kirby Smart would prefer that his players, particularly his starting quarterback and star tight end, didn’t ride around campus in a scooter, but it’s their best option, they feel. It’s something that athletes at some other schools don’t necessarily have to deal with, and Houston’s quote about being sure that another coach uses it against Georgia in recruiting was particularly interesting.
I may be reading too much into that, but it makes me wonder if there’s a little message sending going on with this. Again, a Kirby with more leverage…
Get The Picture 
Good grief. Why can’t the athletic association just pay for spots in the parking decks for the athletes? Would it be that expensive (for the record, I did not have a car while at UGA)
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Students in the Myers community use the south campus deck as their student parking, and the hotel uses that deck for guest parking. Throw in a few people who are on campus for a few hours and that’s why that deck doesn’t work. The scholarship does pay for a space in a lot by East Campus Village or a commuter lot.
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They do. But according to the article it’s (the horror) a five minute uphill walk.
Give me a break. Anybody that went to UGA the past 30 years (or ever, for all I know) should just be rolling their eyes. There’s a limit to my patience as far as facilities complaining goes.
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This is one area I feel little sympathy for the plight of the student-athlete. The parking situation is awful on campus as it is at most colleges, and athletes should get no preference outside of the athletic facility. Ride the bus or a bicycle, walk or take your scooter (and legally park it).
Come to think of it … the S&C coaches should require them to ride bikes. Get to class and work out at the same time! 🙂
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The sprawling UGA campus exacerbates this problem. It would make too much sense to have parking for the people who actually use the facility the most.
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That could be said for literally every building on campus.
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I guess walking on campus is not an option. When I was a student, if you lived on campus you parked your car in a lot and didn’t get in it unless you were going somewhere off campus and too far to walk. If you lived off campus, you parked in a commuter lot and took the bus or walked. I guess the snowflakes are too delicate to walk more than a few feet from their car to a building and riding a bus is beneath them.
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You took a bus and had a car? Snowflake.
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We have the best bus system on any campus in the country. Just freaking use it.
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It’s funny and sad how McGarity can’t talk to the media anymore.
If you’re the head of an organization the size of the UGA athletic association and you can’t communicate with the media, you don’t serve much purpose.
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I’d rather have Felton do it than McGarity.
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I would too.
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If win get a brand new natty then Kirby can hand out signed cards like these:
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1634 Racine
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Wasn’t it Coutu or Butler who swore by biking around campus to improve their game?
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As for the update, f all that. I’m sure some single mom working and going to school is crying for their plight.
It ain’t calling people snowflakes to tell them to wait at a bus stop like everyone else. I’m not anti player, I’m all for paying these guys a good wage. If it’s so bad, maybe they’ll pass a state law letting then park in the handicapped spaces.
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You are talking about this as if the comparison is between the football player and the regular student. It isn’t. See…the supply and demand graph for a normal student at UGA and a 5 star recruit is completely different.
So how many 5 star recruits are you willing to lose because McGoofy didn’t add a parking lot to the IPF design? If Fields’ parents are worried about him riding a scooter all over campus and we lose him to FSU because that plants a seed, do you really think…”he could have just ridden the bus”…is the right response from the AD?
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Some of you guys would give away your daughters if we fell behind other schools in doing it. F that.
I get it, they’re not real students. If they’re pro athletes we should just pay them and not have them go to class then. I’d be fine with that. Then we can use em and cut em if they get hurt and spare me the guilt of using and misusing unpaid labor. If we’re gonna build a parking lot for them, at least let’s have the dignity to not pretend to do it for sympathetic reasons like Seth’s (who I like) tweet.
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Don’t hate the player, hate the (recruiting) game!
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Parking at UGA was always hard. They should have parking and it doesn’t even need to be that much parking because you’ve got what – 120 players – and they can carpool. Bottom line is if you want to make it happen you do and if you don’t want it to happen then you talk about the footprint.
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Yep, the trusty old footprint talking point. It was used for many years to explain why there was no IPF.
“We can’t do this or have that because blah, blah, blah.” It’s a time honored Georgia tradition.
Having said that…I really don’t care about this issue. So whatever.
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I don’t understand why if this is so important why ADGM doesn’t use some of that reserve fund to build a parking deck by B-M for employees and student-athletes. This shouldn’t be something the donor class or the university should pay for.
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I mean, you could build a new, top of the line baseball stadium somewhere else, and put a huge ass parking deck where Foley Field is, right next to Butts-Mehre, and kill two birds with one stone. But that stone is probably too expensive!
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That’s true, but to replace that tiny parking lot with a small deck isn’t unreasonable and could be used for baseball games.
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My personal master plan for athletics calls for a brand new tennis facility out on Milledge, then a new dorm for all athletes built on the old facility’s footprint. Make a few rooms available to non-athlete students so it’s technically not an athlete-only dorm. An easy walk to most athletic facilities, then parking will just be a problem for players living off-campus.
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I guess Mike Adams didn’t realize what the size of the campus was when he decided to increase enrollment by about what, 100%? All those new students need more teachers, maintenance workers, facilities shoehorned into the current footprint? What?!?!?!?!?!? Maybe they could just build a 20 story parking deck in the lot between the tennis center and the baseball field, except that encourages the use of fossil fuels and will probably destroy the planet.
I feel sympathy for the players, who used to live at McWhorter and could just walk to the practice field park in the McWhorter lot. I bet in the midst of all the grand empire building, Mike wasn’t inconvenienced, nor were his Praetorian staff grandees. Nothing like failure to plan, I guess.
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McWhorter went away when “athlete only” dorms were outlawed by the NCAA.
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Get a booster to give you a burner phone with Uber installed on their credit card. Tell no one. Don’t lose phone.
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I can relate. They took away the Herty lot on North Campus just as I perfected my weekend rounds.
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I miss the days of our players being thrown in jail for minor scooter violations
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I’ve long suspected that a football player or two shagged Jimmy Williamson’s girlfriend back in high school and he has been getting even ever since.
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Why hasn’t UGA bought that school next door. Should have done it years ago.
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Because ACC and UGA don’t get along. ACC just spent a boatload of money on that one,
I don’t get it, UGA is Athens
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Not to Athens residents it’s not. Besides, UGA really doesn’t have leverage. Are they gonna threaten to build a new campus and stadium in Elbert county? UGA isn’t going anywhere so Athens is never gonna lose that money base.
It’s also not that easy to move a school. Schools are located where they are for a reason. They can’t just stick it in Wintervillle. So the same problem exists for a school as it does a parking lot. Where are you going to put it. It’s not gonna be some bad PR if ACC eminent domains some properties in the area to replace a school that’s being replaced by Butts-Mehre parking. How much is a parking lot worth financially? Because the ACC would make sure there’s hell to pay for it.
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UGA could also eminent domain some of the rental housing around/behind said elementary school. Probably less flack in doing that
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Parking at UGA has been a problem for as long as I can remember. I used to represent kids in the student court in parking cases more than 40 years ago. The administration won’t fix this because, like a lot of cities, they make money on it. They routinely hand out a lot more parking stickers than there are spaces then act shocked when people park illegally. This is so “Georgia Way” it isn’t even funny.
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Back in the ancient olden days when I went to UGA it seemed like the campus defied the laws of physics. If you walked from point A to point B it was all uphill. If you walked back from B to A it was still all uphill. I don’t remember any scooters but it sounds like a great idea; electric bikes would be even better but then they’d have to install charging stations.
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Fing Scooters! They’re back!
Our newest model features a big rear end and seat made just for the O-linemen. It features a glow-in-the-dark ring in the seat center to guide the big guys at night.
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Greg Mediocrity should call Elon Musk and have him to set up the nation’s first hyperloop system on campus. Players could get to practice like Elroy Jetson headng off to school and as quick as a deposit at the bank drive thru. Just remember, no loose change in the pneumatic tube!
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If we made it easy for them, we wouldn’t be able to collect the bond money.
#COMMITTOTHEG
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