If you’re looking for a more realistic way to go forward with the Cocktail Party than Mike Griffith’s relentless nihilism you might be interested in this take by… ***checks notes***… Matt Hayes?
For years, the city of Jacksonville has made it too difficult for the universities to ignore the fiscal impact. The schools earn about $5.5 million each for the game, about $3 million more than they would for a typical home game.
But you don’t make your football coach the highest-paid in the game — Smart last week signed a 10-year deal worth $112 million — and not listen to what he inherently believes will make the program better.
The contract with Jacksonville ends after the 2023 season, and the game is so important to the SEC media rights deal, CBS announces well in advance of the season — every year — that the Cocktail Party is locked in at the coveted 3:30 p.m. spot.
Or as one industry source told me last week, “You’d have to be crazy to not put that game in that spot, no matter what their records are. It’s ratings gold.”
Ultimately the decision to keep the game in Jacksonville will come down to money. Or as Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry told me, “That’s probably 95 percent of it.”
In other words, Jacksonville must overpay Georgia and Florida and force them to say no. If the payout moves to $7 million-plus per team, will Georgia say no to $14 million every 2 seasons to cash $5 million and keep 4 home games over the same span?
That’s a big number ($9 million) to walk away from.
The universities could likely petition the NCAA — or make a rule after the current NCAA restructuring gives the Power 5 schools complete control — to allow both teams to host recruits at the game. The schools could then pass along the expense of doing so to Jacksonville.
There are numerous answers to keeping the tradition of the Cocktail Party alive, but it will ultimately come down to Georgia president Jere Morehead and deep-pocket boosters — who just made Smart the highest-paid coach in college football.
You’re not doing that and ignoring something he feels is vital to avoiding 41 more years between championships.
I think that’s pretty close to being right. For sure, you can’t ignore Smart’s expressed preference (which isn’t the same thing as giving him everything he asks for). But I’ve got to say I’m a little amused to see people who for years have praised the Georgia Way for fiscal prudence turning right around to say it’s fine to give up a few million so that Kirby can have one more opportunity every other season to host recruits.
Squeeze Jacksonville for everything it’s got — and Smart’s very public wishes should make that easier — while also pushing Greg Sankey, who, after all, is in charge of a conference that’s about to host both of college football’s traditional neutral site gems, to lobby the NCAA to pass a rule to allow recruits to be welcomed to the Cocktail Party and the Red River Showdown. That’s a win-win in everybody’s book.
Get The Picture 
At least it’s about the money. I was worried it was for other reasons.
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Isn’t it about the fact that recruits can’t take an official visit to a neutral site event and have the school pay the travel expense?
I’m sure the people who lose their Cocktail Party tickets as a result are going to be pleased.
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The couple hundred (per university) who lose tickets in this scenario (low-level donors guaranteed) is a much smaller group than the 20,000+ who will lose tickets every other year should the game move to home and home.
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Those lower-level donors are potentially the future Magill people.
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Absolutely, however, when has B-M worried about “potential” Magill Society members rather than current ones or recruits?
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True.
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They can have my seats, I’ll just get in the pool.
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The focus needs to be on changing the stupid rule. Who gets/doesn’t get tickets changes every year, so adjusting for recruits and their families is in the noise.
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The recruiting issue isn’t the mythical rule. The recruiting issue is that the recruiting staff cannot show off the university and city as well when the recruits are 340 miles away.
It isn’t the same “red carpet open house” that would happen at a home game.
I am not advocating one way or another on the Jax versus home and home issue but I do think that being accurate on the issue helps in formulating solutions.
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Serious question — do “big” recruits only come to campus once? I know Arch Manning came to Athens to be “wined and dined” on more than one occasion. I would think the opportunity to show off the spectacle also known as the WLOCP would also be a selling point to recruits. Our competition also has incredible facilities but do they have what we have in Jacksonville? Texas, Oklahoma and UF can compete in that area, but can Bama, Clemson, OSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, etc? My UGA marketing and advertising classes taught me to put a unique selling position (USP) in front of your customers as often as possible.
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They can only go to a campus once for an official visit (I believe a recruit can only go on 5 official visits total) where the host school pays all of the expenses. A recruit like Manning can visit as often as they like, but the travel expenses are the responsibility of the athlete’s family.
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I wonder if the problem is more that a recruit, particularly the ones we are chasing, and his family would say that they would love love love to get to Jacksonville but they are so busy on all of these weekends that they have to prioritize each one towards seeing the whole campus package. Nevermind how it affects their tally of official visits.
I agree with your marketing concept and not trying to dismiss it. I think with Jacksonville, you may be running in to the situation of many “customers” (recruits with full calendars) not in position to experience your product at this juncture.
On the flip side, there’s nothing that prevents any Georgia season ticket holder from “selling” their tickets to a recruit’s family and coaches encouraging them to check out Jacksonville. We’ve been doing just fine without every single weekend of Georgia football being an ass kissing expedition. Hell some kids and families may appreciate that if they make it to Jacksonville.
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Russ, would you want to be one of those people who has had Cocktail Party for years, has stayed at the same place on Amelia, and go with another family and then you’re told you don’t meet the cutoff? Surprise, surprise you find out that 100 recruits plus families are in Jacksonville. What about if you’ve contributed for years because of your good seats in Jacksonville just to be told those sections are for recruits now? Instead you’re stuck with worse seats than you had. The recruits aren’t going to be put in the temporary seats or in the top row of the upper deck, and they also aren’t going to be put somewhere to inconvenience the Magill and above crowd.
Frankly, the status quo is better than any solution Brooks, Stricklin, Kirby and Billy come up with.
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How is this different from those of us who got UK tickets for years and planned long weekend getaways with other Dawg families in Bourbon/Horse country and now don’t qualify for tickets because of the influx of Magill Society members who get all of the away game tickets? My father had donated since 1959, but had already started losing his access to away game tickets that he had gotten forever long before he passed in 2013. Or that I qualified for Natty tickets in Atlanta but didn’t in Indy? (I’ve donated since I graduated in 1985.) Getting tickets to any game is all about how much money you give the AA and isn’t going to change no matter where they play the UF game.
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Because the tickets in this case aren’t going to someone who is paying more than you. It’s totally different. The schools are minimizing visitor allocations now. This would be telling someone who has been a contributor and likely a Florida game ticket holder for years that your seats are no longer available because we are giving your tickets to recruits to attend the game. Thanks for your contribution and support of Georgia athletics. Tough luck. I hope you can get tickets on StubHub, the official ticket reseller of Georgia athletics.
I’ve become very cynical about this issue. Kirby is trying to piss down our legs and tell us it’s raining by pretty much saying if you support the Jacksonville game, you hate Georgia recruiting.
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I basically agree with you about his issue, but I’m willing to look at solutions that would answer as many viewpoints as possible. If they can solve Kirby’s issue without killing the tradition for the vast number of fans, why would we not investigate that? I also believe it would be much more palatable to the majority of folks who fall into the lower giving levels, but currently go to Jacksonville, to potentially lose their tickets to recruits than to have the game moved to Athens and face the fact that they would never even have the potential for tickets in Gainesville unless they up their contribution by tens of thousands per year. We’re not talking about thousands of tickets here, just a few hundred.
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If I were one of those people, I wouldn’t be happy about losing those tickets, and nothing the UGAAA could say or do would make me happy about it. I was able to buy tickets at face value. Now I have to pay double or triple (at least) the price if I want to go to the game.
Kirby doesn’t want the game in Jacksonville. He didn’t say on the SEC Network that he would like to host recruits on official visits at the site (or at least, provide tickets to recruits in Jacksonville). He said he wanted the game on campus or possibly in Atlanta. I take him at his word. He wants us to be the reason the tradition ends.
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He even said he would like to take his players to Gainesville. Who really wants to go to Hogtown?
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I’m not “happy” that college football is now all about the money, but I accept that the student-athlete ship has sailed, not to mention that my happiness doesn’t really count. I “hope” that we can keep at least some of the things that make college football special, but I’m also not going to get angry about losing them. I will grieve them when they are gone, but that’s the extent of it.
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I want to know how much true supply is suppressed and controlled by “partners” like stubhub. Maybe it’s not a thing at Georgia with so much demand, but i’m pretty sure at many places they have sneaky little off-loading agreements to keep season tickets “sold out.”
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Season tickets and away/neutral game allotments at Georgia are sold out in the truest sense. Last year, everyone who requested Florida tickets received them. The cutoff for Clemson was pretty darn high for a neutral site game (I didn’t get them but I found a better option at the end of the day). I have no idea about other places.
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Kinda wondering if the Big Dawgs will continue to support Magill or spend it on NIL…….
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Heck get Jax to build new smaller sections . just for recruits. They need to change the Rule. No way that game leaves Jax. One of the biggest games of the year and not just for us. TV eyeballs, networks won’t let it move.
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This is I think the biggest point many are glossing over. Sure Morehead wants Kirby happy – but Sankey could fix this all by allowing recruits to be hosted at neutral site SEC (BOLD – SEC) games. No way he wants to lose that game for future TV packages. That’s sort of where Kirby loses me with this argument – we could be playing Oregon in Athens in September, but we chose to play at a neutral site. You can create big non-conference atmosphere on campus in Athens to make up for the game in Jax.
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Official visits are the purview of the NCAA. There is nothing that says Georgia and Florida can’t provide tickets to recruits in Jacksonville now. The schools have agreed between them not to provide tickets. They can’t host recruits and pay the travel expenses at the neutral site. This is an NCAA rule that would have to be changed regardless of what the SEC would allow.
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Jacksonville can’t sell out their stadium other than once a year. To build an additional 1,000 seats for recruits isn’t going to happen. It still doesn’t change the NCAA rule on hosting official visits at a neutral site event.
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there’s no way UGA is leaving 9 million every 2 years on the table. This isnt like popping for 35k for a charter.
I continue to not understand why they cant just let the designated home team treat it like a home game, complete with recruits, etc. Limits on spending, hotels, etc? Fine. If the the big thing is get kids to see the atmosphere, who cares? The home atmosphere in Athens is great, big games in athens are great. But a big game versus the Gators is historically unique. That ought to count for something. Especially for an extra 4.5 million a year.
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The NCAA doesn’t allow official visits to be conducted off campus and isn’t likely to start granting waivers because that ends with USC and UCLA playing in Honolulu so they can give a free trip to Hawaii, or Notre Dame and Boston College decide to play in Dublin every year. That’s what this whole thing comes down to.
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It would be exceedingly easy to craft a rule that would prohibit games like that, with an exception for “traditional” neutral site games.
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Wouldn’t the NCAA get sued by its members over that? That seems to be a restraint of trade. Even at the conference level, no way would the other members give Georgia and Florida something like that if they couldn’t have it. If official visits could start occurring off campus, I could see Bama and LSU saying let’s play in New Orleans every year and provide for official visits. Tennessee and Kentucky decide to play in Nashville, so they can wine and dine recruits.
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Schools are going to take away a home game to play at a neutral site because they can host recruits every other year, which they do at home anyway? I guess I’m not following your logic.
Kirby’s point is that he’s losing a week every other year to host recruits.
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I was commenting on your point about a carve-out for the WLOCP, the Red River Shootout and Army-Navy. My point is that the NCAA isn’t going to grant that. I don’t see the SEC allowing it either.
I just think this is total BS on Kirby’s part. Mary Beth probably should tell him my friends at Athens Country Club think you’re being ridiculous about this.
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Maybe you make it a part of the waiver that the game has to have been played at the neutral site for at least 10 years. Or 20. Or 25. Shutting off one time games or the Kickoff Classics, etc doesn’t seem too complicated. YMMV. 🙂
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I’ll be honest – I want to keep the game in Jax purely for traditional reasons because every year we see new ways that the dolts running CFB can tear down the traditions that make this game so great. I get why Kirby wants it to be home-and-home. And as a season ticket holder, I’d love to see my donation & ticket costs go toward a better home schedule. But leaving Jax just feels wrong for many reasons.
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Agree with this.
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RE: both of college football’s traditional neutral site gems.
Army and Navy would like a word…
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It’s an epic game, no doubt, but it’s not just played at one site and in fact I think they’ve scheduled an on campus game or two in the future.
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I believe that the Supreme Court, in its ruling, essentially said that the individual conferences could make their own rules and it would not be an antitrust problem.
So Sankey could do this on his own, if he wishes to.
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Texas and Oklahoma need to be pushing Sankey, too—the Red River Showdown is about to be an SEC game. Imagine having the last two real neutral-site rivalries in FBS both being part of the same conference. As much as I think we should’ve stayed at 12 teams, that’s a pretty big point of distinction.
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My understanding is that Texas and Oklahoma give recruits tickets. They don’t do official visits of course.
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Begs the question how much more is it worth to ATHENS to have the extra home game every other year in terms of the economy than a mere $3 million?
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Put it this way: they’ve never offered to pony up before.
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Why does UGA owe the City of Athens that money? The town really has no input on this decision. I get that Athens business owners or people that are AirBnB or VRBO hosts would love to get an extra home game weekend. The UGA AA doesn’t care. It is what it is.
People who would want to go to Hogtown over Jacksonville are crazy. Hogtown sucks unless you need somewhere to stop on the way to somewhere desirable in Florida.
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They don’t, I am simply saying it is a huge economic impact and loss of significant tax revenues. And a chance to get 150,000 more people to Athens including alumni that donate much more than $3 million. But whatever Kirby wants is what is going to happen. And it also will depend upon the final dust settling on the conference realignments and schedule.
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Once again, where does the UGA AA benefit from the increased tax revenue to Clarke and Oconee counties? Once again, people make their donations knowing that Florida ticket access is a part of it.
I don’t think this issue is as simple as Kirby wants it so it’s going to happen. For myself, I’ll probably boycott the first Florida game in Athens (and I don’t go to Jacksonville). I never sell my tickets, but I may just give them to my Florida cousins.
Josh Brooks should send out a survey of all season ticket holders to gauge their customers’ interest in moving the game. This thing only changes if Jacksonville doesn’t come up with the money UGA wants and the Magill and above crowd says it’s ok to move the game.
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One of the last things Athens needs to do is throw more money at sporting events. We’re already wasting millions on a new arena.
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Griffith will have to pry the annual Jax game from media’s cold dead hands before it’ll ever go home and home.
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When we were regularly losing the WLOCP, I didn’t mind it being in J’ville because we’ve always stayed at Sawgrass and it’s been a vacation if nothing else. Now that the turntables have turned, I’d like to have home and home. I have no interest in it being at MBS, though. Either Jacksonville or home/home or maybe even a mix.
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What is it about the game today being home and home because we’re winning? Pre OBS, the Handbags wanted to move the game out of Jacksonville because they were losing. They are the ones saying we want the game here.
The bottom line is if the neutral site ends, the Florida people will have a field day over it. I’m sure Orlando’s village idiot, Mike Bianchi, can’t wait to write that column about how Georgia left Jacksonville with their tails between their legs because Kirby remembers the beatings from Steve Spurrier.
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Shootout
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Interesting that you referred to UGA vs. UF as the Cocktail Party, but called OK vs. TX the Red River “showdown” instead of “shootout”.
A subtle jab at the Big 12 or just an oversight?
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