Guzzling Gators and boozing Bulldogs will have to find new ways to get wasted at this year's UF-Georgia football game.
There will be fewer places to buy alcohol and more police patrolling the Jacksonville Landing during the iconic sporting event.
We have mixed feelings about this new policy. Increasing the police presence for the game is a great idea. The event has a nasty history of violence and has seen a handful of student deaths in the past few years.
It makes sense for the city of Jacksonville to take measures to improve safety for all in attendance, and upping the number of police by 25 percent is certainly a good start.
UF and Jacksonville will also increase the number of Sideline Student Safety Zones, which provide first aid, water, transportation and other services to students on Game Day.
However, we aren't quite so thrilled about the new alcohol policies that will be put in place this year.
The Landing will cut the number of alcohol vendors in half, and so-called "roaming shot" vendors will be banned entirely.
Excuse us, but isn't the event known as "The World's Largest Cocktail Party"? Oh, wait.
We don't believe the free flow of alcohol should be restricted for this event or any other. And especially not in Jacksonville.
Have you ever been to the Landing? Snooze.
Officials claim that reducing the number of alcohol vendors will help to improve traffic flow in the area. But the shortage of alcohol could actually make those areas much more congested.
It seems to us that people will find other ways of getting alcohol. They may simply move to the parking lot to drink.
Fans who suddenly face stricter rules on booze will just get drunk beforehand. Wouldn't it be much safer for people to get wasted in areas with increased police presence - such as, say, the Landing?
The UF-Georgia football game is by far the most important sporting event in Jacksonville this side of the Super Bowl. And it happens every year.
Restricting access to alcohol at the Landing will push people away from the area's bars and reduce the city's economic benefit.
The event is clearly very important to the city of Jacksonville. It's so important that city officials agreed to subsidize Georgia's travel expenses when the schools renewed their contract to continue playing the game in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium earlier this year, according to Alligator archives. The Bulldogs will have three chartered planes to fly them directly into Jacksonville, all on the city's dime.
City officials also agreed to drop the stadium rent to a ridiculous $1 when the new contract was negotiated, according to The Florida Times-Union. They're obviously expecting some huge payoffs from the influx of economic activity.
The UF-Georgia game has a long-standing history of drunken revelry and obnoxious fandom. We believe that UF and the city of Jacksonville shouldn't fix what isn't broken and leave this Southern tradition alone.
