ATHENS – Greg McGarity says Georgia football has “a great plan” for fan attendance at the Sanford stadium in its final stages before launch.
The Bulldogs are expected to announce an assistance plan that will allow 18,000 to 30,000 socially estranged fans, pending local health legislation, CDC recommendations, and SEC directives.
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The Bulldogs will open the season on September 26.
However, the SEC has yet to release its revised schedule after announcing a 10-game schedule only for the conference on Thursday.
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The parents of the players, top donors and UGA students would have priority in the Bulldogs’ scheduling plan, according to sources familiar with the plan’s discussions.
Seating reduction will carry over to sky boxes and press boxes, as well as general seats.
Ohio State announced earlier this week that it plans to limit attendance to 20 percent, which would mean no more than 21,000 at Ohio Stadium. The state of Florida has said that capacity at its home games could be as low as 25 percent of capacity (19,890).
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Georgia released a preliminary limited seating plan earlier this summer.
UGA President Jere Morehead brought together nine task forces to design plans for the schools’ return to full operations, with McGarity involved in the athletics group.
The 225-page report included a tentative sketch of how UGA would do game day operations. That included cashless operations in parking lots, ticket sales and concession stands, and mandatory social distancing.
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There were no provisions to allow participation in the preliminary plan.
Some of the guidelines for limited assistance model issues earlier this offseason:
– compulsory social distance of six feet
– Decals at entrances, bathroom concessions to guarantee a distance of six feet
– cashless operations in parking lots, ticket sales and stalls
– concessions for workers in gloves and masks
– the seats would be in groups of 2, 4, 5 and 6.
McGarity said Thursday that the masks will be mandatory at Sanford Stadium.
“I give Josh Brooks and his staff a lot of credit,” McGarity said in a Zoom call Thursday with reporters, praising the Bulldogs’ assistant athletic director. “We have had an army of people working on what our social distancing plan would be, we are reviewing the final pieces of that now.
“Once we launch that, those who can come to our games can feel that they are as safe as possible,” he said.
“We just want to do our best to create the safest environment for anyone in the confines of Sanford Stadium, be it fans or student athletes, that is our responsibility.”
Thirteen of the 14 SEC schools will play five home games and five road games this season, but Georgia will only have four home games.
McGarity said “unless something changes,” his plan is for Georgia’s coaches and players to fly to Jacksonville for a neutral game with Florida instead of moving the game to Athens.
It’s Georgia’s year to be the designated home team in the annual rivalry game. The game is contracted to be played in Jacksonville until 2023, although there are also plans to significantly reduce seating at that stadium this season.
McGarity also said Thursday that Georgia is certain to play against the eight SEC teams that were previously slated for the 2020 campaign.
The league has yet to determine how it will add two more conference games.
One of the SEC schedule models discussed is for teams to add the following two cross-division opponents from their 2021 and 2022 schedules.
In Georgia’s case, that would be a home game with Arkansas and a road game in the state of Mississippi.
East Division rival Florida would add a home game with Alabama and a road game with Texas A&M.
Other models are being considered and more discussion is expected among SEC athletic directors before details of the new schedule are determined and announced.
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