Brian Kemp took some time yesterday to appear on Finebaum’s show, where he did a little pundit work.
By the way, does anybody seriously doubt how quickly NIL legislation would pass and be signed into law if Georgia needed to keep up with Florida? But I digress.
Anyway, more relevantly, given the NCAA’s announcement yesterday, he was asked about the prospects for the season opening on time.
The governor, a die-hard Bulldog fan, told The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday that it’s too early to tell whether Georgia’s season opening game against Virginia on Labor Day will open before a “packed house or a sparse crowd or no crowd at all.”
“I know everybody wants to have a crowd there,” Kemp said of the game. “I would urge people to continue to follow the guidance so we can drive these numbers down so that we can do that.”
… Kemp said fans can expect a “new norm” when they return to sports stadiums.
“I’m reserving judgment now, but believe me: I’m an optimist, and I want to see that happen if it’s at all possible. We’ll try to be working with folks to do that if it makes sense from a public health standpoint.”
I’m guessing what makes sense to Gary Stokan might not make the same sense to me, but what do I know?
Let’s see what makes sense to y’all. Reader poll time!
Feel free to elaborate in the comments.
Get The Picture 
If they can get fans in, I hope to be there. If I can’t, I’ll likely watch. If fans aren’t welcome, I’ll find something else to do and catch some highlights.
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I voted that the season will not start on time because there are so many moving parts involved. How to handle crowds large or small, concessions, restrooms, exiting the stadium, and who should be allowed access? Will UVA be up and running? High schools in the metro Atlanta area are beginning to announce the cancellation of football (Riverside Military Academy is the first). I imagine that universities and colleges will soon follow.
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i expect you will see a vast exodus of athletes from riverside military academy to places that will play.
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If I recall correctly Riverside Military Academy is a high school, so those kids aren’t dressing out as Florida Gators this season.
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Also, it is a small school. When my kids’ school used to play Riverside 20 years ago it dressed may 30 kids. Not enough for a mass exodus.
Also, it is a boarding school so parents aren’t sending kids there to play football. The reasons parents send their kids there are the same without football.
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I grew up in Marietta & Riverside was the school where bad boys were sent to “straighten up” (the cheaper version of Darlington, where Buckhead boys were sent).
One year, 2 guys were sent away and when they returned a year later, they both had indian ink tattoos. 1 had a lightning bolt on the wrist, the other a dagger on the bicep. I’m not sure that they had straightened up much.
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i expect you will see a vast exodus of athletes from riverside military academy to places that will play.
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Isn’t Riverside the military school in Rabun(?) County? Small campus, close quarter barracks or BOQ type lodging with communal dining and bathrooms? I can see them holding off on opening the campus, period.
I know my AD’s and coaches are chomping at the bit to get back in action….
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Riverside is in Gainesville, Georgia.
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Yep. Should know that living here. :0
Still think it’s an an exeption t a normal high school.
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I know that students. coaches and AD’s are ready to play across the country, at every level. The problem is that not everyone feels that way. Will all Georgia high school programs compete this season? I highly doubt it. Will all NCAA teams compete this season? Again, highly doubtful. Then how do you handle scheduling, travel, hotel, dinning, squad size? As I stated above, there are so many questions to be answered and issues to be resolved before the 2020 season can begin. Just my opinion, but I think we have an abbreviated schedule in 2020.
On a different topic, will the NCAA give every school 30 (just a made up number) practices this summer and fall? How will they handle the differences among states and conferences? This is a huge matter that I have no read much of.
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Skeptic, yours was my 2nd choice. I don’t know if they are going to start on time, but I do believe if the conferences, the ADs and Mickey can make it happen, they are playing on Labor Day weekend with or without fans.
From the CFA Kickoff Game website:
“The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game has distributed a cumulative $75.8 million in team payouts, boasting an average of $5.4 million in total team payouts per game, which is higher than 26 bowl games last year.”
While I believe the payout this year will be lower given either no or limited fans, for UGA, it’s a 3rd bowl game size payout.
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By restricted, I mean McGill Society only. Very safe environment for them.
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Great data to see. Just worried that it’s a bit skewed by responses from fans that have no intention to attend in-person, Covid or otherwise. Would like to see this data for only season ticket holders.
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I’m a season ticket holder and if we start as normal, I don’t think I will go.
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I gave up my season tickets a few years ago. If we still had them we would not be attending. Our son is a season ticket holder. They won’t be attending.
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I’m a wait and see’er.
I think we should delay the start or, at the very least start with geisterspiel. But I also think it’ll be like Italy before so many died: folks will just show up and tailgate anyway. I’m not sure there’s an appetite among the authorities to enforce social distancing or shut down Athens like that.
In the end, I think they will do everything they can to try and play the games as scheduled – particularly SEC and B1G. At UGA, we’re cutting the budget 14% so Jere will be desperate for the revenue stream just to save people’s jobs.
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I need you to tell me what geisterspiel means. But I wonder – are you really a wait and see’r? There is no way this season isn’t going to be a clusterfuck. There will be a season of some kind because: money. Scheduling, travel, equipment maintenance, hotels, crowd management, concessions, rest rooms, tailgating, etc. are all problems in normal times, so you can easily imagine how difficult this may well become. And you can see that the smartest thing to do might be to just take a year off. But: money…
Your first paragraph says you are a wait and see’r, but your last paragraph says there will be a season of some kind. I guess you’re saying the first paragraph is what should happen, but your last is saying what will happen. Is that right?
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Dylan, geisterspiel is German for “ghost games”, a game without fans, a la the Bundesliga this past weekend.
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Wait & See. Logistics are a nightmare and their will be no national consensus. They can’t possibly go with a “damn the torpedoes” approach so they will likely experiment with a few games at first and see if they can find a model that works. UGA v. UVA might happen for TV only, but can’t see a full season happening with lack of consensus on the logistics for on campus games.
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If my “C” score gets me in I will be there. If not I will watch on TV
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The Spanish Flu was deadlier than SARS-CoV-2. They played football through that pandemic. I suspect that the season will start on time. Some places will have fans, some will not. I think the indoor stadiums probably won’t have spectators. From the data we have, outdoor transmission is extremely rare. With reduced capacity (maybe 20-30% capacity), limited concessions (e.g. bring your own water), mandatory masks, social distancing, and no geezers, the games should actually be pretty safe for fans. The question will be about the locker rooms.
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They played a 5 game “season”.
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The reduced seasons in 1917 and 1918 were due to WWI which ended in November 1918. UGA played 9 games (going 4-2-3) in 1919 which was the worst part of the Spanish Flu. Nine games was the standard back then.
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Not only that, the UGA students made the infamous float trolling Georgia Tech for fielding teams during WW1.
Legends
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UGA in Argonne, Tech in Atlanta. As you said, Legends.
Those cowards then wouldn’t play us until 1925.
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That’s good stuff. This is why I never want to quit hammering the nerds. Once Kirby hits 9 in a row, then we can talk about some alternate arrangements.
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I really wish he didnt lose the 2016 game at the end there with poor management. The streak would be long
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UGA didn’t field a team in 1917 or 1918 (though that was more WWI related) and didn’t kick off the 1919 season until October.
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Check the other seasons. October was the normal start time for College Football.
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“The Spanish Flu was deadlier than SARS-CoV-2.”
Hmmm. That’s a hard statement to accept since it lasted almost 2 years, and science at the time initially thought it was caused by a bacterium and had little to no understanding about viral infections. We know much more today, took steps to prevent the spread that people are complaining about and still have 95k deaths in less than 4 months.
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I am going by case fatality rate. Tens of millions of people died from the Spanish Flu. Estimates were that about 10% of the people that got it died. We are at 330K global deaths in six months. I don’t know how it is hard to accept that 20-100 million in 2 years is more than 330K in six months.
Modern science / medicine should help us to make better risk management decisions, but it seems like people are choosing either Karen-posting or pretending the virus is a conspiracy.
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Pre-pandemic I was going to grab tickets off Stubhub. Now, barring either a really effective treatment (either a shot or pills you can take to avoid any hospital stay) or the even more unlikely event of a vaccine by summer’s end, if they let folks in, I’m likely staying away. If I watch on TV, I don’t have to worry about getting sick (or getting my elderly parents sick) and while there’s a lot we still don’t know, the potential for large gatherings (1,000+ people) to turn into super-spreader events still seems like something that can happen.
Also, looking at countries that have managed this crisis far better than the US has, the games do come back, but the fans don’t and while I missed the chanting and songs, I was just happy to have some good live soccer back on TV this past weekend.
(Side note: how many football programs — UGA including — have their sports psychologists working on how to get players ready to play without tons of crowd noise?)
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Like Auburn does – piped in noise through the PA System.
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People are growing weary of this shutdown and want to return to some normal life. Parents and their college aged children (including football players) are too. It is becoming clear that the shutdown has been more than was actually needed. We have over reacted and made it political. People are disgusted with our leaders and the news and are ready to go forward on their own with the information they have.
No-one knows for sure, but I predict that by the end of June, and certainly before football season, there will be a cascade of people itching to move on. As it relates to football, this will mean games, and if the various states involved allow it, fans in the stands.
I don’t buy that players or their parents (college or high school) will balk at resuming the season. They are chomping at the bit. If you let your kid play football which carries a significant risk of significant injury, you are not going to change your risk tolerance over COVID, given that it rarely affects young, healthy people.
Hence, I predicted games with limited attendance (the schools will not be willing to just completely open it up), and I’ll be there.
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I voted for restricted watching from home, only because I am a cheapskate, if someone were to gift me some tickets I would be there on a heartbeat.
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If they let people in, I’ll be there if my tickets work or if I can scalp them without taking out a HELOC. The market for tickets in a Sanford Stadium limited to 20k or so would be fascinating. Also, can you imagine being stuck in the the 600 level and looking down at 45,000 empty seats in the lower bowl?
Ultimately, I think they end up playing in empty stadiums because it’ll be the only way to level the playing field between states and conferences. Plus, many athletic departments just won’t want to piss off so many people who don’t get in for the benefit of the few who do get in. They’ll happily cash the TV money over risking not getting any money if they let fans in the building. NASCAR is setting the precedent this week.
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It makes the most sense to me to limit occupancy through ticket sales. If I were AD, I’d allow students first, then lottery the remaining available seats to season ticket holders. (How hard would it be to write a simple selection/ elimination algorithm on an existing database?) If a selected ticket holder declined the slot goes back into the rotation until all are filled.
Make it fair by awarding preference points for seat improvement or discounts for following seasons for those that decline or are not selected. Hunting permits for certain areas of the country are allotted this way. how hard can it be?
This is why getting back on the season ticket bus sounds like such a good deal right now, if you’re going to do it. You can decline the games you don’t want to see in a season that has a pretty shitty slate anyway and still be rewarded next season, and the next.
If that’s how it plays out it’s a no-brainer. Now will the UGA AA do something that logical? IDI.
And to your point Fish, if it plays out this way and UGA shows out in Tuscaloosa? That secondary market will be a sight to behold…
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The Magill Society members and the upper end of the Hartman Fund contributors are going to get the tickets. That’s the system that has been in use, and I can’t see the AA telling a large, long-time Hartman Fund contributor that they are sorry his lottery number didn’t get selected.
I’m expecting my tickets to be in the Fech deck or at the top of the 300 level in one of the corners but preparing to be told, “Sorry, we can’t fulfill your season ticket order in 2020.”
It will so 2020 for Georgia to win a national championship, and I don’t get the opportunity to attend a single game. I’ve been in Sanford every year for a game since … wait for it … 1981.
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Of course you’re correct …
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Since 5/5/2020 Georgia has been trending upwards in number of hospitalizations on a 10 day rolling period. Everyday we add more new hospitalizations than roll off.
My guess would be that we have to shut everything down again before a football game gets played with any number of fans greater than 10.
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Maybe, but mitigation was never going to end Covid 19, only delay cases.
Anyway, according to those right wing hacks at the AJC, hospitalizations are doing the opposite of trending upwards (tho they use a 7 day avg).
https://www.ajc.com/news/coronavirus-georgia-covid-dashboard/jvoLBozRtBSVSNQDDAuZxH/
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The Department of Public Health had to issue ANOTHER apology and correct their data AGAIN. They’re either incompetent, lying or both. I’ve been following Johns Hopkins numbers. They say we’re trending up. And they don’t really have a reason to lie.
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It’s difficult to see what is actually happening because our testing is all over the board. Some states ramping up testing and some using less than stellar test. The only real measure is hospitalizations and to a lesser extent deaths which in itself appears to be questionable.
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The bad data and political side never ends. Its impossible to really get hold of what’s really happening.
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The bad data and political side never ends. Its impossible to really get hold of what’s really happening.
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It’s hard to get sober people to social distance properly and consistently. Drunk fans at a football game? Good luck with that.
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Not to mention the “but muh freedom” crowd that is going to be downright belligerent over the suggestion.
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If they don’t play what will happen to the kids with only one year of eligibility left? Does the NCAA make an exception and give them another year of eligibility and how would that effect recruiting and roster size limits?
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They did so for spring sports. They didn’t do so for winter sports like basketball and wrestling for which most most of the season was played but championships were cancelled.
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I haven’t looked but assuming (dangerous method) don’t we typically have 20 – 25 kids every year that run out of eligibility? If that’s the case would the NCAA wave the scholarship limit and allow schools to sign 50 next year?
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They playin’.
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Funniest data point: the 2 peoples (as of 1145am) that say they won’t watch. Who is a dedicated enough Dawg to be reading the Senator, but will not watch the season opener?
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DawgfanKaren ?
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Care to explain?
I’m not getting your reference.
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I am one of those 2 people. I am on the fence regarding watching or not if there are no fans but I am leaning towards not watching so that is how I voted. I am much less interested, to the extent that I probably wouldn’t even watch, if there are no fans to hear and have the team feed off of. To me, college football is about atmosphere. The fans are a large part of creating that atmosphere, visually and aurally. Playing in empty stadiums for a TV audience only has no appeal to me. I already don’t like listening to most announcers. I won’t want to rely on them to be the only sounds I hear. Don’t get me started on piped in crowd noise that I have heard some networks might try…
I read the Senator’s blog because it is top notch. I have been a Dawg fan since attending and graduating in the late 90’s and will always be a fan. For me, I can find better things to do for 4 hours than watching a game with no atmosphere. I will catch up with what happens here on the blog and wait until things return to some amount of normal. If that is 2021, so be it.
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Interesting. Thanks. I don’t personally think of the crowd atmosphere as a huge part of my enjoyment via TV (of course its huge in person), but I’m pretty sure I will get a chance to find out. Take care-
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Oh yeah, there are some who have said they will not watch any game if fans cannot attend. Forget the Virginny game, we are talking AU, FU, TN, and Bama. And they think we are buying that.
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I’ve said it. I’ll find other things to do on Saturdays this fall, catch some highlights and read the Senator’s blog about the game.
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Wait and see. A couple of days ago the Republican governor of Ohio was asked about the chances of schools in Ohio opening up in the fall, and he said that is going to depend on what we do in the next month. SEC state governments are in the forefront of opening things up, and most medical experts say opening up before the CDC criteria for opening are met will result in a second wave of increasing cases. There’s not much point in arguing whether the experts are right (I tend to believe them) because we will find out it they are right over the next couple of months. I’m not optimistic.
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Which expert do you believe – not being that guy – just curious.
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Fauci, Birx, researchers at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, etc. There seems to be a pretty strong consensus among epidemiologists about a second wave if we let up on social distancing too soon. Our best chance of having a football season is probably to be more conservative about opening up now so we don’t lose the gains we’ve made in the past few weeks of staying at home. Ease up smartly and wear masks when you are going to be interacting with people.
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My thoughts too.
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Y’all, there is no stopping this virus. There will be waves, period. Stop focusing on stopping the virus and R or D, doesnt make a shit. The ONLY thing to worry about is overwhelming hospitals and losing patients unnecessarily. Nobody has the answer to that. State and Local governments are the only jurisdictions that currently have the power to sharpen this point.
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