ATHENS — The only decision Georgia fans know for sure is there will be limited seating for all home games this season.
But the question most every Bulldog fan wants to know: will there be tailgating, the Dawg Walk, student sections and the Redcoat Band?
J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Greg McGarity is keeping those decisions on the down-low right now. He told the media on Wednesday that no decisions have been made on any of the game-day festivities Georgia fans are accustomed to seeing in and around Sanford Stadium in the fall.
On whether the decision to allow tailgating has been decided/if not when the public can expect that decision…
“Well, we outline in our note to our donors that we’ll make that decision a little bit later. I know Alabama has already come out and said no tailgating— Arkansas has, as well— but we’re going to wait and see. We don’t have to make that decision right now but certainly as we near the first game, we’ll make those decisions about tailgating. We will just wait and make that decision a little bit later.”
On what the status is of the Dawg Walk and whether that will take place…
“We don’t know yet. To practice social distancing, that’s not really conducive to the Dawg Walk, as we know it today. It’s really the only way our team can get into the stadium now, so I’m sure that will be modified in some degree. We just haven’t zeroed in on those plans for when we start in October.”
On whether there were plans to have a student section at home games this fall…
“It was important to us early on that we maintain the student section, and [the student] footprint was not affected. We actually increased the students’ footprint slightly, because if you look at some of their sections in the past, like sections 307 and 144, [those] were half students, half donors. Those are now all students. We want clean sections. The footprint of students actually remains exactly the same, and actually a little bigger. We’ve already applied some methodology to how we will lay it out, similar to what we do with donors. Now that the plan is out, we’ve got a meeting set for today. We’ll start meeting with more student leadership to confirm the allocation plan and make sure they are comfortable with what we’re working through. We want to maintain that section for them, as well.”
On whether there are plans to have the Red Coat band…
“That has yet to be determined how the bands, I know the Medical Advisory task force is providing some guidance to the athletic directors, as we move forward. That has yet to be determined as far as how band and cheerleaders would function this year.”
