Game Day Impressions

Alright Road Dawgs - what did y'all think of Athens?

I've been many times over the years, so I'll give a few of my thoughts.

Tailgating: Tailgating in Athens sucks. It's hard to get in and out, the terrain is terrible, and it is incredibly spread out. It makes it impossible for large groups to congregate. Starkville and the way we use area around the stadium to tailgate is far, far superior.

Parking: wasn't bad. Pulled off the GA 10 loop, right into River Road and parked in the East Campus Deck and caught a shuttle bus right too my tailgate location (which was just luck). I was early - like 1:30 - and I know my way around. I would guess some if you had a hard time.

Pregame: UGA's pregame was very good. The Larry Munson narrated history video was top notch.

Game: way too much loud music over a terrible PA system. Their ribbon boards used excessively enough to cause epileptic seizures due to the flashing light changes. A red Pom Pom at every seat makes the much more sense then making sections wear certain colors - the red wave of Pom Pom s throughout the game was a great visual.

Post game traffic: sucked ass.

I didn't eat anywhere or hit any bars b/c we were staying out of town after the game so someone else can commentate on those.

In a nutshell:

Our tailgating is definitely better
"It's Saturday in Athens" got me jacked up
Maybe I'm old but all college towns seem the same to me now
Traffic was great for us, as pain free as possible, and we stayed downtown

Overall had a good time. Good food, tons of talent, from both sides. We represented well.

I definitely noticed the huge changes in lighting from the ribbon.

Sat right on 50 yard line and the entire section stood the entire game. Extremely vocal when we had the ball.
They were very nice, but not sure it would have been that way if the score had been different.

As for the Pom poms , they looked good, but the nice young lady beside me inadvertently beat me in the face all night.

All in all great in stadium atmosphere and good time. (Except our guys play of course)

I had a good time there except for three jackass fratboys at a bar downtown. Other than that, walking there sucks. It's all uphill or down. Everybody else there was nice.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

Alright Road Dawgs - what did y'all think of Athens?

I've been many times over the years, so I'll give a few of my thoughts.

Tailgating: Tailgating in Athens sucks. It's hard to get in and out, the terrain is terrible, and it is incredibly spread out. It makes it impossible for large groups to congregate. Starkville and the way we use area around the stadium to tailgate is far, far superior.

Parking: wasn't bad. Pulled off the GA 10 loop, right into River Road and parked in the East Campus Deck and caught a shuttle bus right too my tailgate location (which was just luck). I was early - like 1:30 - and I know my way around. I would guess some if you had a hard time.

Pregame: UGA's pregame was very good. The Larry Munson narrated history video was top notch.

Game: way too much loud music over a terrible PA system. Their ribbon boards used excessively enough to cause epileptic seizures due to the flashing light changes. A red Pom Pom at every seat makes the much more sense then making sections wear certain colors - the red wave of Pom Pom s throughout the game was a great visual.

Post game traffic: sucked ass.

I didn't eat anywhere or hit any bars b/c we were staying out of town after the game so someone else can commentate on those.

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I noticed on television the crowd was pretty much dressed as they wanted to ... not a lot of school colors, let alone section color dictations. The pom poms seemed to take care of the colors.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

Alright Road Dawgs - what did y'all think of Athens?

I've been many times over the years, so I'll give a few of my thoughts.

Tailgating: Tailgating in Athens sucks. It's hard to get in and out, the terrain is terrible, and it is incredibly spread out. It makes it impossible for large groups to congregate. Starkville and the way we use area around the stadium to tailgate is far, far superior.

Parking: wasn't bad. Pulled off the GA 10 loop, right into River Road and parked in the East Campus Deck and caught a shuttle bus right too my tailgate location (which was just luck). I was early - like 1:30 - and I know my way around. I would guess some if you had a hard time.

Pregame: UGA's pregame was very good. The Larry Munson narrated history video was top notch.

Game: way too much loud music over a terrible PA system. Their ribbon boards used excessively enough to cause epileptic seizures due to the flashing light changes. A red Pom Pom at every seat makes the much more sense then making sections wear certain colors - the red wave of Pom Pom s throughout the game was a great visual.

Post game traffic: sucked ass.

I didn't eat anywhere or hit any bars b/c we were staying out of town after the game so someone else can commentate on those.

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Overall, good experience.

Agree on the tailgating scene - very spread out and random.

Parking itself was relatively easy. Leaving after the game was pretty bad. Once we made it back to the truck, we sat in one spot for about 1.5 hours. Once we got back out onto the road, the traffic flowed OK. Maybe we just happened to pick the lot that they empty last?

Pregame was OK. Crowd didn't seem that in to it. Once he game started, crowd was definitely engaged.

Agree with the terrible loud music. Small jumbotron (singular), too. Didn't show a lot of replays. Crowd was live and loud.

Traffic - see above. Really bad, post-game.

Overall, it was good experience. Most everyone I encountered was really nice and welcoming. The concessions and bathrooms situation in the stadium was pretty bad. Really long lines. The new Davis Wade has spoiled me in those regards, at least on the West side.

Only had one guy who tried to engage in smack talk, but he was so bad at it that it just made me laugh. His woman-friend apparently agreed with me as she kept rolling her eyes at him and telling to shut up. And we did encounter one student who had some unsavory comments for my 2 boys (7 & 9 y/o) and their jerseys, but it was no big deal. Had a cop talk to me a coupe of hours before the game and he told me to not hesitate reporting bad behavior by any UGA fans directly to security. He said they have no problem throwing out their own fans, almost as if he wanted to do so.

Our gameday experience has really improved over the last several years - especially pre-game and in-game, as well as the tailgating scene. Starkville will never be Athens, but I'd say we're on par or better than UGA with the in-stadium experience.

Bar scene downtown pre-game is great. Better than ours. Athens is one of, if not the best, SEC college town in my opinion.

Tailgating isn't close to ours. Too spread out. No central hub. They killed north campus several years back and it's never recovered.

Stadium was the loudest I've heard it, but I've only been to a handful of games there with the biggest one being LSU @ UGA several years back when gameday was in town. It's not as loud or rowdy as Davis Wade but it's a lot better than I remembered it. The phone lights between the 3rd and 4th are cool. Pregame was solid and they do a great job of pumping in noise between plays and the fans pick it up when the jumbo quiets down. They stayed loud the entire game too.

I was talking crazy smack to everyone within ear shot of me. It was playful and jovial and they were all laughing. They got to poke fun at me after the ass whipping commenced though! It was all in good fun. Absolutely great fans around me.

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Originally Posted by Political Hack

Bar scene downtown pre-game is great. Better than ours. Athens is one of, if not the best, SEC college town in my opinion.

Tailgating isn't close to ours. Too spread out. No central hub. They killed north campus several years back and it's never recovered.

Stadium was the loudest I've heard it, but I've only been to a handful of games there with the biggest one being LSU @ UGA several years back when gameday was in town. It's not as loud or rowdy as Davis Wade but it's a lot better than I remembered it. The phone lights between the 3rd and 4th are cool. Pregame was solid and they do a great job of pumping in noise between plays and the fans pick it up when the jumbo quiets down. They stayed loud the entire game too.

I was talking crazy smack to everyone within ear shot of me. It was playful and jovial and they were all laughing. They got to poke fun at me after the ass whipping commenced though! It was all in good fun. Absolutely great fans around me.

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Athens as a college town is hands down the best in the country in my opinion. I spent a lot of time partying in Athens in the 90s, and there is no place like it. No one has the bars, the music, the arts, the women, and the food like Athens does and does them all well. It's actually one of the reasons I went to State - I was afraid I would flunk out and wind up following Panic around the country or being a bartender for life if I went to UGA.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

Athens as a college town is hands down the best in the country in my opinion. I spent a lot of time partying in Athens in the 90s, and there is no place like it. No one has the bars, the music, the arts, the women, and the food like Athens does and does them all well. It's actually one of the reasons I went to State - I was afraid I would flunk out and wind up following Panic around the country or being a bartender for life if I went to UGA.

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This is pretty much it. In terms of the actual campus, most big southern schools are basically the same, and I actually like State's better than UGA's. In terms of the town itself, Athens is good and better than most. You do have a part of town you don't really want to find yourself accidentally walking through, but downtown is really good when it comes to food and fantastic when it comes to music.

Plus Creature Comforts is one of the best breweries in the Southeast.

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Originally Posted by Eric Nies Grind Time

Plus Creature Comforts is one of the best breweries in the Southeast.

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I agree on this. Automatic is the best Pale Ale I have ever drank.

Cc is great. Hard to find the trop anymore. Sells out almost immediately everywhere. I like scofflaw though. Their basement IPA is good.

Honestly I think Trop is overrated. To me Terrapin Hi5 is very similar and widely available.

Grab Automatic and/or Cosmik Debris if you see it though.

Other than the game my crew had a great time Friday night and Saturday. Never had so many fans come up and be as welcoming as the UGA fans were, and were actually authentic about it. The downtown scene did not disappoint, and can't be topped. Absolutely beautiful campus.

The atmosphere at Sanford was electric all night, thanks to the flee flicker of course. But our fans could learn to stand and yell w/o the help of a bell. The fact that the video board is so small and not accessible to everyone (MSU section) is a big knock on school with the resources they have.

Thought the PA guy was good. Music was terrible.