Mark Richt is all for playing some football in Atlanta in the coming years, but don't ask him for specifics.
For one, he's through talking about moving the annual Cocktail Party game between Georgia and Florida to the Georgia Dome, a notion that has been discussed at length during the past few weeks. Richt's initial comments on the game, which is played every year in Jacksonville, Fla., was that the Gators had a distinct advantage because the venue is significantly closer to Gainesville than Athens. But the backlash to his comments was swift and generally harsh, and Richt said he has learned his lesson on putting his two cents in on that topic.
"Every time I say something it becomes a much bigger deal than it is," he said. "I really don't think it's neutral, but then everybody's wanting to make a big stink about where should we play the game. I don't care where we play the game quite frankly."
That doesn't mean he wouldn't like to lead his team onto the field for a game at the Georgia Dome soon. Richt said he is in favor of playing a neutral-site game in Atlanta each year, but he won't do it at the expense of a home game at Sanford Stadium. If an opponent is willing to sacrifice a home game to play at the Dome, however, Richt's all for it.
"We have a neutral site game (against Florida) already, so every other year we're losing a home game," Richt said. "If you have another neutral site situation, you're losing another home game, and I don't think we should trade a home game for a game in the Dome. But if they want to trade a home game to play in Atlanta, that would be great for us."
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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2 comments:
I have to agree with him. I think people completely overanalyze everything that comes out of his mouth. It's a real shame he can't have an opinion about his own team without getting crucified.
I don't think anyone is crucifying Coach Richt for saying that the game is a disadvantage for our players, which he has said since 2001. The address of the site actually is 1 Gator Bowl Boulevard, Jacksonville, Florida.
The facts are that all Gator fans, and half the UGA fans (mostly those with ties to South Georgia) would just as soon see The University of Georgia and Sanford Stadium moved to Valdosta so that this $20 million dollars that is spent in South Georgia and Jacksonville each game, can continue to line their pockets.
When, as Coach Richt has pointed out, the game keeps us from a home game with our season tickets, and the impact that has on the economy of Athens Georgia.
Atlanta ?
Atlanta is predominantly an UGA town, and always has been with now one-third a million UGA graduates to 29,000 Tech graduates.
It's 10 to 1, despite what the AJ-C demonstrates in their bias for what they refer to as our home team deserves top-billing.
Coach Richt would not have said that it used to be called the Gator Bowl (The Gator Bowl is still played there every single year.) and that it is far closer to Gainesville than to Athens, if he was not pointing out once again as he always does that he cannot acclimate his players to the change in weather in one day down there ahead of time.
We have one player recruited from Jacksonville and Florida has 27, including Tim Tebow.
Next year being year 20, two decades, and if we lose again as expected again, we have won exactly 3 of the 20 games.
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