The University of Georgia will continue to play its annual football game against Florida in Jacksonville for the next five years under a contract the Jacksonville City Council is expected to approve next week.
The pending deal was first reported by several Jacksonville media outlets late last week. The contract, which runs through 2021, is largely an extension of the existing deal. The big change is each school will receive what amounts to a $125,000 signing bonus.
Each school also will receive a minimum payment of $250,000 each year of the contract. The schools will split the gate, and both schools will receive a $60,000 travel stipend each year. Georgia will get an additional $350,000 for air travel.
Jacksonville also agreed to fund the construction of two large signs at EverBank Field noting it is the annual host to the game once known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
Before Jacksonville landed an NFL team in the mid-90s, the Georgia-Florida game was the city’s largest sporting event, generally drawing crowds larger than the Gator Bowl game itself. The game was played in Jacksonville annually between 1933 and 1993. The 1994-95 games were played at campus sites as the old Gator Bowl stadium was torn down and replaced with what is now EverBank Field. The game returned to Jacksonville in 1996 and has been played there since.
Fans of both schools fill area hotels for days before the game, now played in late October. According to Jacksonville city officials, the game’s annual economic impact is more than $33 million.
But it can create scheduling issues for both schools. By playing in Jacksonville, each school gives up one home conference game every other year. And each school’s biggest in-state rival is a member of the ACC. That means an additional road game every other year for each school.
Combined, that makes it difficult for the schools to fit additional non-conference road games into the schedule while maintaining enough home games to fund the program. The council is scheduled to consider the matter at its May 9 meeting.
