Georgia football to have 20-25 percent capacity crowds at Sanford Stadium

Georgia football to be played in front of reduced capacity crowds in 2020.

Fans will be able to attend Georgia football games, but only in a limited capacity at Sanford.

The University of Georgia athletic department revealed its seating plans for games at Sanford Stadium this year, how many fans can attend games, who can purchase tickets, if fans can travel to road games and what to make of the most important game of the season down in Jacksonville vs. the SEC East rival Florida Gators.

Right off the bat, Georgia said between 20 and 25 percent capacity crowds will be allowed at Sanford this year. With the stadium holding over 92,000 seats, this roughly equates to 20,000 fans, give or take a few thousand, who can watch the Dawgs tee it up Between the Athens during four Saturdays in Athens. It should be noted Georgia only has four true home games this year.

What is the impact of having reduced capacity crowds at Sanford Stadium?

It feels like the university will try to appease as many season ticket holders as possible with block seating. It sounds like members of Dawg Nation will have to give up a bunch of money to be able to attend up to four home games on the Georgia campus, although single-game options will be available as well. As for going to road games, you can go to Jacksonville and that’s it.

This wrinkle is interesting because for Georgia’s five true road games, there will only be a 500 tickets available, and those will go to the immediate members of the players and staff’s families. We have to wonder if this will be the case across the entire SEC. There may not be any schools that will allow visiting fans to come an opponent’s football cathedral. This changes everything.

As for Georgia’s four true home games, let’s see who the Dawgs are playing and what affect playing in front of a reduced capacity crowd could have on any of these particular ball games. If a stadium was full of 92,000 Georgia fans, that could make for quite the home-field advantage like the Dawgs usually have at Sanford. Now, that’s not the case.

Georgia football 2020 home games

• Auburn Tigers: Oct. 3
• Tennessee Volunteers: Oct. 10
• Mississippi State Bulldogs: Nov. 21
• Vanderbilt Commodores: Dec. 5

Looking at the Dawgs’ four home games, two games will be impacted by reduced capacity crowds. Those would be the first two right out of gate with the Auburn Tigers coming to town on Oct. 3 and the Tennessee Volunteers venturing to Athens the following Saturday on Oct. 10. Smaller crowds give Auburn its first chance at a road victory in Athens who knows how long.

As for the Tennessee game, this is the one that will be the most impacted. Until we see Auburn win road games in Athens, it’s not happening. With the Vols, they did upset the Dawgs Between the Hedges back in 2016 by way of a Hail Mary. Jeremy Pruitt is well acquainted with the Classic City from his time on Mark Richt’s coaching staff. Tennessee has a decent shot at an upset.

As expected, the Mississippi State Bulldogs have maybe a snowball’s chance of pulling off the road upset in Athens on Nov. 21. Then again, this is Mike Leach’s first year in Starkville running a new offense and things could be already so off the rails by then. There is a decent chance Derek Mason isn’t even coaching the Vanderbilt Commodores by their Dec. 5 date with the Dawgs in Athens.

Playing in front of a reduced capacity crowd will affect Georgia, but not as much as other teams.

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