By the way, also from that Tony Barnhart piece is this bit:
Barrett Sallee, my friend from CBSSports.com, made a point recently that fans will be very excited to return to the stadium this season because, after what they went through last year, they’ll never take the joy of watching a game in person for granted again.
I agree.
Eh, color me not so sure about that. A number of fans were introduced to the pleasure of attending Man Cave Stadium last season and found easy access to things like restrooms and refreshments to be something of a pleasure. I also haven’t seen anything indicating that ticket prices are becoming more affordable in the near future.
As for novelty, it’s been my experience that it tends to wear off, sooner or later.
But that’s just me. (And I’ll still be attending games, because… well, because me. Hell, I was there last year.) What say you?
Get The Picture 
I’ll be there. ManCave Stadium is great, but there’s nothing like being on campus. Just being part of the scene. It’s more than just the game, it’s tailgating, hanging with old friends, drinking, eating, taking in the whole experience. Hell, I’m even looking forward to the ride to Jacksonville this year.
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I hear you KornDawg.
Get off my lawn.
😉
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A huge plus at the stadium…no beth mowins for you…
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Yeah, but I’d take Beth Mowins over Bob Davie in a cage match all day long.
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I’ve ragged on Mowins a lot, but she at least is knowledgeable about our team and our opponent, something that can’t be said for many of her colleagues.
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As is with most if not all announcers in today’s arena, lack of preparedness/knowledge, presentation and their friggin’ voice…sorry Russ beth just ain’t it…especially UGA football or anything else…
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“It’s more than just the game, it’s tailgating, (drinking)hanging with old friends, drinking, eating,(drinking) taking in the whole experience (while drinking).”
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I tried to keep it somewhat clean.
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What’s dirty about drinking??
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Nothing can replace the game day experience (stadium)…..
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I don’t disagree and I have always enjoyed attending games in person. At the same time, I’ve grown pretty accustomed to watching games at home or with friends on TV and that started long before 2020. We are past the headache (and expense) of getting a babysitter for an entire day, but between kids’ sports, other demands for weekend time for things that can’t be addressed during the week, and social events, carving out the time for just the game is much more convenient than the majority of an entire Saturday in Athens. I expect that in five or so years when we no longer have kids at home we will attend a few more games each year.
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I feel the same way. I love the big game. There’s an electricity to being in the stadium for big games that is palpable. But that’s what, 3-4 games a year, at most? Having people over and putting out an awesome spread and watching multiple games is by far my preferred style. And as you said, that began well before 2020.
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Don’t underestimate our ability to bring back first world problems once the pandemic is out of sight
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As far as I know UGA hasn’t made tailgating any easier, parking more convenient or ticket prices more affordable. The APD still has no idea how to move traffic. The seating in the stadium is still metal bench and the restrooms make a truck stop seem like the Taj Mahal in comparison. A trip to the concession stand will still cost you an entire quarter and net crappy food. No doubt we are all excited to get back out and live life to the fullest extent possible this year. By next year, we’ll be over that.
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As much as I loved having season tickets, I absolutely hated my seats in September because B-M refuses to build a sunshade over the upper deck east endzone seats. It wouldn’t cost much money and it would exponentially improve the fan experience, as well as help keep noise inside the stadium.
So of course the asshole ADs we’ve had refuse to even acknowledge it needs to be done.
I do love the live games the rest of the season, though. There’s something about being back in Athens in the autumn. It’s magic.
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It’s the south, it gets hot. Should they just put a lid on the entire place? We don’t want you to get too hot.
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Dude, WTF is your problem? I said a SUN SHADE. Plenty of big SEC and ACC stadiums in the South have those in their stadiums precisely because it’s the South and it’s hot and the sun beats down on you without mercy. FSU has one. Bama has them. It’s not like what I’m saying is something that’s crazy or insane as you’re insinuating.
I’ve been to every September home opener or second game the last four years before last year, and every single one had paramedics visit the east endzone upper deck for those crappy noon games because people were getting heat stroke.
I don’t know what your issue is, maybe it’s a reading comprehension issue, I don’t know, but I suggest you deal with it.
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That’s a new consideration for me. Sun is not the friend of my skin as when I was younger. Part of leading/winning the age race I reckon.
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The issue there is the sun is literally right on top of you, beating down on you for the entirety of a noon-start game, and because of the way the geographic area works right there on campus, there is almost never any breeze. At all. It’s brutal.
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Well, the last time I sat in the 600 section, I was pretty sure I could just about touch the sun’s corona.
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Luckily I’ve never had to go that high, but even in the 300 section it is so bad.
Just putting up a sunshade over that one endzone like that ugly-ass stadium in Hillbillyville has would improve quality of life for tens of thousands of fans for a minimal cost.
Why it’s not done by B-M just blows my fucking mind.
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Those azzholes don’t sit out in the sun and they damn sure ain’t thinking ’bout your misery.
Only thing they’re thinking is, “Where’s my money, Brian?”
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“….would improve quality of life for tens of thousands of fans for a minimal cost.”
So now it’s a quality of life issue. Damn, that sounds familiar!!
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I’ve been in a lot of sec stadiums. Don’t recall a sun shade.
Where have you seen one?
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Isn’t there one at Vaught – Hemingway? Some kind of weird ass architectural feature if it isn’t a sun shade
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That’s one I have yet to make.
From google images it looks like Ole Miss has some extended roof feature over a handful of seats but not a lot.
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The following SEC programs have some kind of sun-shade / partial roof to help ease the plight of their fans in the upper decks:
Alabama
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
Tennessee
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Yes there is. It does not cover many seats. It’s a road trip I recommend.
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I sit in the east end zone club section it would be cold in November with no sun.
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You can add layers and use hand warmers and whatnot.
Having the sun beat down on you like it does in September, with people having medical emergencies, is a far worse scenario.
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I’d say when Barrett Sallee is you main source, you should should give up journalism and work for Entertainment Tonight. Also, how many grandmothers are watching SEC football so closely that you need Tony Barnhart?
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I don’t believe this so called excitement will result in higher CFB attendance. My prediction is overall attendance in 2021 will be lower than 2019 by a fairly significant factor.
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If they will ever go to letting me pick the camera angle, so that I can see both teams in entirety throughout the play, I will be in football heaven. I hate the camera work of ESPN the most. I am still waiting for the promise of HD TV… that they would show football games with the entire field between the 30s viewable when the play is at midfield.
Will TV ever replace the in person experience? I don’t think so. But I do think we will see that going to a game becomes something that is done on special occasions rather than as a habit.
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Great comment – you are in fact able to see so much more in-stadium than you do on tv….
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The influence the crowd has on the game, emotionally, is what I’m looking forward to most. Very sterile environment with the limited in attendance last year.
We already saw this yesterday in the premier league – and that’s with only 8k in attendance (much smaller venues).
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We will be there we have missed the in stadium experience but as we are getting older the tv does seem more attractive. I guess this year will determine which is really better for us.
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I’ll be in Charlotte, Nashville, Jacksonville and Athens.
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When my three boys were younger, every other year was a father/son(s) trip to Nashville for the weekend. Drive up Friday after school, attend the game on Saturday and have a nice dinner that night, and drive home on Sunday with a requisite stop at Rock City. Great memories.
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A weekend in the autumn mountains with the boys after a Dawgs victory. There’s a lot to like about that entire trip.
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I cant count the times I dragged the camper through there on skinny two lanes and the private campgrounds. North GA is a lot to love. Haven’t done it in over a year now, kids are 18 and 13, not the “let’s go hiking” age, which is fine. I’m good at balancing what they want and what we want. Son soon to be BMW employed in Greenville, daughter in the graphic art program. See where it goes.
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I love going to games and I’m really looking forward to doing it again. However, I will only go to one or two a year because as awesome as it is, it’s an inglorious pain in the ass that requires me to miss out on watching every other game that day. My wife actually has been converted and wants to go but I’m afraid that the experience will ruin her new-found toleration of football. How BM cannot see this liability is beyond me.
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If I give up my season tickets, it will be because I’ll be doing other things on Saturdays in the fall. I can catch up on a game with highlights or later on DVR. I can’t wait to be back in Sanford for 6+ games a year, and, yes, I went to the Tennessee game last year and had tickets to the Candy game.
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I ordered season tickets again this year and plan on attending but the benefit last season of avoiding the drive and traffic and walk to the stadium from somewhere near winder was ALMOST worth missing the in-game experience.
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My Game Day experience has evolved and transformed with time. From the drunk and obnoxious early 80’s student phase to the cultured and gentile tailgating and corporate Skybox full day experience. Now I eschew the Game and parties as I simply want to watch the Dawgs and continue on about the business at hand. The only folks I allow to watch the Game at my place bring a good snack, a better beverage, don’t mind pissing outside and repudiate babbling on about stupid shit until commercials.
Standing for three hours amidst a screaming, barking sea of humanity, hiding my bourbon like a miscreant and fighting the jostling crowd for the “privilege” of using nasty facilities isn’t my idea of a good time anymore.
I blame that lowdown piece of shit Michael Adams and all his enablers for laying waste to those hallowed Saturdays. Hell, I used to love the traditions of Game Day and that was a major consideration in my moving back to this area. I’m Old Georgia and I won’t comply with that chickenshit vexation forced down my throat.
I found a new happy place right here in Section My Spot. I look forward to watching the Dawgs crush our rivals and see them driven before me while not having to listen to the lamentation of their skank ho’s.
Go Dawgs!
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Upon reflection, I don’t think I have pissed in the house for a decade, unless you include the occasional shower where it had to happen. Shower = 4 minutes, so it’s a thing. If I have to go, it’s in the shower or outside, blast away.
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Rigger92, my Dawg!
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Second
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OK, RR. (Nice lady in a lab coat)
1) Are you angry today?
2) Do you feel like hurting someone today?
3) Do you feel like hurting yourself today?
4) Is someone out to get you?
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I gave up my seats this year after 50 years of being a Hartman member and ticket holder. We have been weaning off attending even though we are healthy enough to attend, were in Section 130, have good parking, know how to avoid the heaviest traffic, and are members of a great tailgate located close to the stadium. It has beena great 50. I regret it from time to time, even before the season starts, but sometimes even the best things end.
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I’ll be more eager to return to tailgating on campus than actually watching from inside Sanford Stadium. Maybe it’s maturity (or stupidity) but the thing I missed most last season wasn’t watching the game in-person but spending the week before prepping the food and our setup and having a common place to catch up with family and friends. And that’s not to say anyone who disagrees is wrong, I still do enjoy sitting in the stadium and likely will continue to do so this season. But I’ve been to hundreds of games over the years so maybe I’ve just hit that saturation point? Idk
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I’ve only been to a handful of games in my life in multiple tounds (Tallahassee, Athens, Tuscaloosa) and, while I enjoyed them all, I think attending one game a year would be just the right amount of times for me.
Being home with access to my own bathroom and a TV to watch the full slate of games is more exciting to me.
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I think this is about where most people will fall moving forward. 1-2 games per year in Athens, the couple of trips a decade to Jacksonville. That’s reasonable, and it scratches the itch.
I wish B-M offered a plan just like that where you can attend 2 games per season and pay for those games at a pro-rated version of what’s needed to contribute to the Hartman fund.
Like how the Braves offer season ticket packages that are just the Friday games, Saturday games, or Sunday games.
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You know that just isn’t the Georgia Way, don’t you? And why should it be? After all, this is not a 4 seats, 4 hot dogs and 4 cokes kind of place, thank God. They’re selling out now as it is. The sun shade idea isn’t bad, but again, they’re selling the seats without it, so….. don’t hold your breath.
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Well, the Young Alumni Program, which is how I got my season tickets for a time, was great. It allowed younger, poorer, student-loan debt-strapped alums get season tickets.
So of course that fucking asshole Greg McGarity scrapped the entire program.
Who needs really loud, younger fans in the stadium when you can continue to milk the olds who sit on their hands and yell at you when you stand up on 3rd downs?
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As a Young Alum, who lives in Athens, I really wish the greedy bastards at BM hadn’t discontinued that program. I doubt Millenials, like myself, will buy tickets like previous generations, and one day BM will wonder where everybody went. Between paying student loans, starting a family, saving for a house, and building the retirement nest egg, there just isn’t a lot of money to throw at big ticket entertainment. I’m afraid by the time BM realizes this, they’ll have permanently lost the full house they take for granted on Fall Saturdays.
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Yep.
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Y’all just there to provide background color and noise for the skyboxes and cameras, anyhow.
As long as that sweet TV money keeps rolling in? “We appreciate y’all coming out and supporting the program, Peasants.”
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Yep, when the fans aren’t there anymore, it will just be a green screen.
I’d love to see how much it costs to host 90k fans vs what they bring in. I’d bet it’s close to single digits percent of that sweet, sweet TV money.
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I’d bet the same. And for all the grousing and bitching about NLI, transfer rules, and everything else that’s “ruining” our beloved sport? That sweet, sweet TV money is at the root of it all.
That being said, I’m perfectly happy in section HD. It’s just easier and for me a much lower chance of interaction with the local constabulary.
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Word.
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We’ve extended the Hartman Fund deadline and predict the cut-off for tickets to the game in Norman, Oklahoma to be…
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When BOA Stadium opened up to full capacity, I looked to see what it would cost for 2 tkts…well, after stubhub showing top corner seats for $320ish a piece I decided that it will look just fine from my, or a friends TV. Lol
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For the fanatics, they’ll (we’ll) be doubly excited to get back in the stadium and won’t miss a game unless we absolutely have to.
For the more casual fan who generally went to games out of habit because they’ve always done it, a percentage is going to fall out when we get back. We’re seeing the same thing happen with church.
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Commuting to a game is no longer an option for the Euro Bulldog Club members as it requires, metro, trains, planes and rental cars…but hacking a cbs vpn allows me to catch the red and black + as much as i loathe ESPN thank god for ESPN+ as it allows us to see the rest of our beloved Dawgs!
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I’m planning to make the drive to Jax to visit with friends and see Kirby unleash an unholy beatdown of the Gators. Other than that, I’ll enjoy section HD. Just checked the schedule, and the farthest west the Dawgs travel this season is Nashville. I’ve already checked that box (and watched us get screwed by the refs with bogus targeting).
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Fans? Yeah. They’re going to be hyped.
Casuals? They’re casuals. They’ll get around to it when it’s easy or it’s the place to be.
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Are you saying if you don’t go to a game you’re somehow less of a fan?
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When I was a fanatic, I used to yell at people leaving early “Spectators leave, fans remain!”
Yeah, I haven’t been to Athens in several years, but I did drag my ass to South Bend and Pasa-get down-dena.
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I ain’t going until Posse’s bbq is back!
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I’ll be in Athens as (almost) always. Maybe I’m a glutton, but none of the gripes about bathrooms, concessions, traffic, tailgating restrictions, parking, weather, choice of music, hokey traditions, price, crabby old folks, drunks, lack of easy booze access, running the damn ball too much/too little, the curse of the granite bulldog (even though it’s no longer a thing) or getting out of section 118 (which is a pain after close finishes), (did I miss anything?) will dissuade me from being there. It’s simply what I/we do. I cannot wait to be sweating myself to death and wondering why I pounded so many drinks right before kickoff, all while cheering my arse off for my beloved Dawgs.
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Coniston!!! The voice of reason!!! A glimmer of sanity in a blog gone mad!!!!!
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I’m in the It’s done group. The year before last was my final year of f/s tix because I worked for the BOR not UGA. I worked an extra year so I could get ND tix and made it to the Rose Bowl. As luck would have it I’m having mobility issues so it’s time to hang up the walk from Normaltown. I was able to haul in a 60lb Wahoo last week so I’m not totally done for.
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Corch,
While I agree with your assessment of Greg McGarity and what he did to younger fans like many of his actions was shit.
I’m old loud and dam proud to be loud all four quarters. There are plenty of younger season ticket holders around us who sit on their hands or worse play with phones. I only take mine out to turn on the flash light at the forth quarter after dark.
Last year taught me I can live without going to every game anymore. I’m trying to hang on long enough to attend a winning NC game. Once I’ve checked that box I’m heading to the ocean spending every day I can with either a dive tank on my back, bend rod in my hand with good friends having cold beverages waiting for me to empty. Lobster, stone crabs and snook for dinner. So if Kirby will hurry up and get that first NC I’ll be on my way.
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If it’s not you, you’re definitely not the problem. But there are many wine & cheesers who think it uncouth to be excited by a football game, and it is time for those geezers to hang it up and stay home.
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Nice. But really, the program is in the best state it could be right now. Just let go and do your thing man. It is fun to anticipate all this success but damn, Kirby is on the MF;er. It will happen or it wont, we are in the arena, that’s cool man. We were not in the arena for 20 mixed years. Enjoy it.
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Did my first dive last summer at 52, scuba. It’s always been on the bucket list. Mrs. Cowdog did it with me and got a little claustrophobic, so she’s out. I didn’t drown even though I fucked up with the vest and ended up sitting on the bottom (25 ft, shallow first dive) looking up at the instructor and the Mrs. with a mask filling up with blood from my nose.
Subsequent dives went much better, I’ve got two more trips planned this year.
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Got Cowdog,
Congratulations on getting past that starting point and staying with it many never make it. I started in 69 at 14 they put so much weight put on me I went down like an anchor no BCD then. I was walking on the bottom lucky I didn’t drown. Being stupid was easier when I was young.
If you ever get a chance visit Key Largo I highly recommended it. No better value in the US for your money great dives no deeper than 25’ in John PenneKamp marine park or earn your advanced open water on the USS Spiegel Grove wreck sitting in 134’at the keel reaching up 60’
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We were on the south side of Jamaica, I think we were supposed to stop at 40′ but the instructor and I went deeper to see a couple of things, lobsters under a rock and a nurse shark. Mrs. Cowdog didn’t care for it but I dove twice a day the entire time we were there. For something to seem so scary it sure is a lot of fun…
I’m going to St. Croix 1st week in July, I want to get my 100′ certification, then to Antigua in September. We’re talking about a Keys trip for next year so I’ll certainly keep that in mind…
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I am 61 and loud too. I don’t go to games to passively watch. Shoot I yell even at home. My youngest had to explain that to boyfriends before they watched football at my house.
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“Shut up Gary!”
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As someone who lives in California, and has to spend a lot of money to maintain a season ticket status that is a bad financial deal, and has to spend even more money to travel to Athens for the occasional game…I’m conflicted. I miss Sanford Stadium, tail-gating, Weaver D’s, and a lot of other things about going to the games, but my wife and I are limited to one or two games a year (we are still recovering financially from the 2018 natty game). In 2020, when attending a game in person was out of the question, we did double down on home-tailgating and engagement with local Georgia alums. So we will be perfectly happy to watch the 2021 season at home, and excited to see a game in person if we happen to be in Georgia when the Dawgs are in Athens.
So…it depends!
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