Butts-Mehre and “a worst-case scenario”

Between Kirby Smart, the Georgia Way and the threat of a decline in revenue, something’s gotta give.  Lucky for us, Greg McGarity is on the mother.

McGarity said Georgia is starting a list of “different buckets” that could be affected by the coronavirus crisis.

“Depending on football, obviously, that’s the big unknown now,” McGarity said. “We’re planning as if a football season is going to happen. If that doesn’t happen, that’s a whole another environment.”

Georgia’s football ticket revenue for fiscal year 2019 was $33.4 million, according to a figure provided to the athletic board.

The school also gets a guaranteed $11.5 million annually from its multimedia rights with partner IMG for advertising events that could be affected.

“Is your TV revenue somehow adjusted, are your ticket sales adjusted in some form or fashion?” McGarity said. “There’s a lot of areas that we know could be affected but we really don’t have any data at this point to really be able to comment on specifics.”

There are holes in all of Greg’s buckets, but until he can see how much water is flowing out, he can’t figure out what to do.  But he’s worried about his precious.

McGarity said he didn’t know yet what those figures were because of the uncertainty of how the SEC revenue distributions will be affected for fiscal year 2021.

“We’re hoping and praying that doesn’t happen,” he said. “We also have to be realistic if football was not part of that what does that mean with our reserves, how much of the reserve can we utilize to make us somewhat whole. That’s why we have a reserve, thank goodness. We’re probably in better shape than a lot of institutions because of our financial stability.”

I think he misspelled “our rabid fan base”.

Georgia already extended the football season ticket renewal deadline to April 6, but will handle any “unique circumstances,” for any donors that need to work out a payment plan “if it helps ease the situation due to the economy right now,” McGarity said.

Fundraising for the expansion of the Butts-Mehre building stood at $54.2 million as of last week…

But that’s okay.  We know what he meant.

Advertisement

Forget it, Jake. It’s March without sports.

“At least,” he said to himself as he saw Barrett Sallee tweet that Georgia is no longer the favorite to win the SEC East, “Sallee’s not trying to push Tennessee’s chances.”

Looking Forward: Tennessee rolled into the offseason, but now has to sit around until fall camp. How much does that hurt? Are the Volunteers darkhorse contenders in the SEC East? Yessir! https://t.co/pBMmrfahsE

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) March 28, 2020

Somebody’s got way too much time on his hands.

Meet the new meme

I’ve been waiting for something to drop and it’s finally here — the reason to doubt Georgia wins the SEC East.

Blame it on no spring practice, kids.  Here’s Barrett Sallee leading off.

Looking Forward: How big was the cancelation of spring practice for Georgia? Should the Bulldogs even be the favorites in the SEC East? No. https://t.co/qwpJqRdujq

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) March 28, 2020

Following him in the lineup is Pete Fiutak.

The Bulldog talent level isn’t a problem after years of phenomenal recruiting, but there’s still a whole lot of work to do with ten players showing off at the NFL Combine, and with at least 13 starters expected to be off the Sugar Bowl-winning team.

And that’s the problem everyone has to deal with – there’s no spring football to figure out all of the parts of the puzzle that have to fit.

Pete does a lot of “every other program would be jealous of Georgia’s talent level” offsetting, but then he gives the game away with this:

They miss LSU and Texas A&M from the West, but they have to face Auburn in their annual showdown and they get what should be improved Missouri, South Carolina and Kentucky teams on the road.

South Carolina’s revamped its offensive staff and Missouri’s breaking in an entirely new coaching staff (along with a new quarterback), but somehow both should be improved against the likes of a Georgia team with far better depth and talent?  Sure, Pete.

I’m not minimizing the work Monken has ahead of him, but you know what every other program should be jealous of about Georgia?  The defense.  There isn’t a team in the division that returns as much experience and talent as the Dawgs do.  You can cover a whole lot of figuring out what to do on offense with that.