Georgia Tech has agreed to play an annual home game between 2020-2024 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. ‘
A summary of the deal can be found at RamblingWreck.com, and details of that agreement I reference here come from that site. Here is the schedule. You’ll also find seating questions there as well.
2020 – Nov. 14 vs. Notre Dame
2021 – Date/opponent TBA
2022 – Sept. 5 (Labor Day) vs. Clemson – Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game
2023 – Date opponent/TBA
2024 – Oct. 19 vs. Notre Dame
Let me be first to say I don’t like it, and over 60% of college football fans we polled don’t think it’s a good idea.
Is Georgia Tech moving some home games to Mercedes Benz Arena a good idea?
— AllSportsDACC (@AllSportsDACC) February 26, 2019
Bobby Dodd Stadium is special venue and Georgia Tech has a rich football tradition. This sounds like simply a big ole money grab. Well guess what it is, and it’s exactly what Georgia Tech needs to do at the moment.
From Ken Sugiura’s article at the AJC explaining why Georgia Tech did this.
The change from Paul Johnson to Collins cost about $6 million, and the athletic department was already anticipating running a deficit of $2.8 million for the 2020 fiscal year.
Georgia Tech is cash strapped and needs positive exposure, and that’s a fact. If Josh Pastner and the basketball program keeps it’s current downward trajectory, I expect a buyout will be formulated for Pastner at the end of next year – at the latest in 2021. If he turns things around, that is great, but I wouldn’t count on it.
What a great sell for recruits too. They will get the opportunity to play in the most state of the art football stadium in the country. Right now Georgia Tech is not selling tangible results, they are selling hope. Hope is not that great of a recruiting tool.
Georgia Tech made $2.85 Million from their game at their 2017 Mercedes-Benz game with Tennessee. From that you can estimat that Georgia Tech will be making somewhere between $10 – $15 Million for moving a series of games less than 3 miles from their home stadium. If Georgia Tech can’t outdraw a Notre Dame fanbase that’s more than 10 hours away, then that’s a different issue all together. I’ve seen Georgia Tech do pretty well filling up the Georgia Dome when they played LSU both times in the Chick Fil A Bowl, so it is possible for Georgia Tech fans to come out in numbers.
I hope Georgia Tech gets to a point where this is not necessary in the future, but it’s late February and we’re talking about Georgia Tech football and that hasn’t happened in a very long time.
