If you plan your Saturdays around the strength of Georgia’s home oppponents, then last week against Marshall did not excite you very much, and neither will non-confereence warm-up number two on Saturday against Austin Peay.
With a home slate that’ll later on this year welcome Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss, it’s hard to call it a shock with a good number of likely season ticket holders offloading tickets for these lesser games.
And even this past Saturday, the lopsided score against Marshall and the heat
gave fans plenty of motivation to head out.
Those visuals meant something to Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who leaned into fan support during Tuesday’s weekly press conference.
“Better incentivize? I don’t know that you’d incentivize the turnout. I don’t really believe in incentivizing things. I think it has to be a core DNA trait of belief. When you sell things, it’s, ‘I will do this if you do this,’ and incentivize.I don’t think that’s great motivation. I think it’s intrinsic in who you are. I think people should love to be at a Georgia home game because there’s only so many of them, limited opportunities.It’s the same thing about our players. We don’t incentivize them to run to the ball by saying, we’ll go up your NIL if you run to the ball. You got to do it because you want to be great.You got to do it because you want to be different, and if our fans want to be great and different, then they’ll do it.”
Look, it’s fine and well to say that fans should show up ‘because they want to,’ but it’s not that simple.
Unless you are local to Athens, you give up a good chunk of, if not all of a Saturday. If you have season tickets, you’re on the hook for those and contributing just for the privilege to even request them. Oh, and odds are good you have been hit up to do your duty to help Georgia compete with a donation to a collective, as well. Toss in fewer parking options being available on campus and the comfort of a 70-inch HDTV at home, and it’s easier than ever for fans to say yes to staying home.
When fans are asked to pay more with their time and money, they should expect more, and they are not wrong for thinking as such. It should not be a reach to expect cell phone access without interruption and not plan on a logjam of fans to get through the concourse just before kickoff, but that appears to be so at Sanford Stadium.
It’s foolhardy to say ‘this is college football, how could you not want to be here.’
Fans, diehard or casual, have more options to spend their time than ever before. You want to make fans more eager to show up? Make fan experience priority one.
Georgia already has some early-season offensive line injury worries with Earnest Greene and Juan Gaston having exited the Marshall game with injuries. The good news is that both are on track to get towards a return.
In an item that means absolutely nothing right now in terms of the season’s overall goals, Georgia is up to fourth in the latest AP poll.
So how can you watch Saturday’s game since it’s not on a broadcast channel? You can, but it could be complicated. Here’s a run-down.
Let’s be honest. Lewis Grizzard would have still been having fun at Clemson’s expense if he was still with us.
Go Dawgs!
