The first day of the UGA Athletic Board of Directors annual spring meeting being held at Lake Oconee revealed some good news for the pocketbooks of fans attending Georgia football games.

According to athletic director Josh Brooks, initiatives are now in place that aim to improve the experience for people attending games—but also, prices of five core concession items—bottled water, bottled soda, candy, hot dogs, and popcorn—will be reduced by nearly 50 percent.

The price reductions are due to savings created by the mobile ticket systems implemented this year, which will continue in 2022.

"My goal—and this isn’t just about families; it’s about anyone—I’ve been in enough venues and watched families walk up to the concession stand. I don’t want that family of four to pay $40 or more to feed their family. That’s not the experience I want to create. If I’m talking about packing volleyball, softball, soccer, non-ticketed events, or even our ticketed events, I want to create a good experience,” Brooks said. “I’ve talked about managing people over profits. It’s not always about profits. Our donors do a phenomenal job of buying tickets and supporting us in many ways. It just felt like this was an area where we need to give back, do more, and make this more of a family atmosphere—or for anyone. Trust me, I’ve seen enough families, and I know what it’s like to feed three boys at an athletic event. It’s important to me.’’

Brooks also announced the university is exploring enhancements at Sanford Stadium that include additional fan amenities and improvement of pedestrian traffic on the South 100 Level concourse, as well as the relocation of the press box to the southwest corner of the stadium. In its place, UGA would be able to add additional premium seating.

Other items of note imclided in the Georgia press release regarding the meeting:

• Plans are in place to transform the former football locker and equipment rooms in the Butts-Mehre building for use by the UGA Track & Field program. This study also includes the re-use of the former football athletic training room into an athletic training space for UGA’s Olympic sports.

• The process to replace the four-court indoor building at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex will begin in June. UGA will solicit proposals for the design of a new, six-court building to be constructed on the site of the existing indoor courts.

Associate AD Matt Brachowski presented an update on the Butts-Mehre expansion and renovation project. Phase One of the $80 million project was completed in late April, with the UGA football and Sports Medicine programs currently moving in.

Faculty Athletics Representative David Shipley gave a report of the Athletic Association’s most recent academic news. Among the items included:

• 89 student-athletes graduated earlier this month.

• UGA had 98 student-athletes on the most recent SEC Honor Roll, tops among the 14 schools in the conference.

• The overall Spring Semester grade point average for all student-athletes was a 3.16. Five men's teams were at or above 3.00, and all but one of the UGA women's teams was at or above that mark.

• The highest female sport team GPA for spring was the SEC Champion women’s tennis squad with a 3.57 average. Highest among the men's teams was cross country with a 3.61.

• Former UGA swimmer Nic Fink, who was selected for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in 2015, will be pursuing an advanced degree in engineering.

• Senior distance runner Jessica Drop, was recently announced as the 2021 Brad Davis Southeastern Conference Community Service Female Leader of the Year and will receive a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship.

Quotable:

Brooks Regarding implementation of Name, Image, and Likeness legislation on July 1: ‘’We’re hoping for federal legislation, so, like President Morehead said, every state is playing by the same rules. Right now, we’ve partnered with a company called Altius, who is going to help us with the education process. The first step in this process is education. We’ve got to get 500 student-athletes understanding what we’re talking about, because we may have discussed a lot, but they may not have as detailed an understanding. So right now, the big focus is education and getting ready for July 1.’’

Georgia’s second and third football games this fall—the home opener versus UAB on Sept. 11 and the Southeastern Conference opener against South Carolina on Sept. 18—were among an early round of selections made Thursday for the ESPN networks, according to an announcement by the league office. The Bulldogs’ contest in Athens against the Blazers during the second week of the season will be slated for 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The following Saturday, Georgia will play host to the Gamecocks at 7 p.m. on ESPN. The Georgia-Clemson game will be at 7:30 p.m. on ABC, while the Georgia-Florida matchup will be at 3:30 p.m. on CBS.