College football has a certain charm about it that the NFL fails to replicate. There’s something about piling into bleacher seats on a college campus compared to palaces filled with premium offerings from the field level to the upper deck. As a 29-year-old Georgia fan, I have spent my entire life going to games in Sanford Stadium, but have also seen us play in many an NFL stadium, especially in the Kirby Smart era, fueled by student tickets and then this concept of spending my own money once I got a job to fund the adventures.
There was something collegiately charming about the Rose Bowl on New Years Day in 2018, 90,000 plus packed in bleachers like Sanford Stadium. But as football, both college and professional, becomes infused with more money, stadiums are upgraded into palaces that lose their charm. I’m not sure if the dark, dungy Superdome has ever had charm, but the troughs from the 2008 Hawaii blackout Sugar Bowl were replaced by modern day restrooms and concourses for the 2025 Sugar Bowl. In my home state, the Georgia Dome, albeit an NFL stadium, was replaced in 2017 into the ultra-modern Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Orange Bowl host Hard Rock Stadium was renovated massively when the Marlins left, and national championship sites Lucas Oil and especially SoFi are both 21st century wonders.
However, there has always been a middle ground between college stadiums and NFL wonders, and that distinction has belonged to probably the worst NFL stadium there is, EverBank Stadium on the banks of the St. John’s in Jacksonville, home of the annual Georgia-Florida game. I was born after the Gator Bowl was torn down for the modern stadium, but for anyone that’s ever been to Jacksonville, the stadium has lacked the NFL premium experience that the new era of stadiums has ushered in that we see in Arlington, Atlanta, and Inglewood now.
I’ve been to Jacksonville every year since the 2009 infamous black helmet game, and one by one the stadium has crept into modernization led by Jaguars owner Shad Khan. The original scoreboards were replaced with the biggest videoboards in pro sports in 2014, the faded teal seats in the club level were replaced with new patios and seating, and the scaffolding of temporary seats have been replaced by a party deck and pools. However, the biggest change is yet to come.
Announced in 2023 by the city of Jacksonville and the team, EverBank Stadium will undergo an ultramodern renovation that makes it closer to a Florida version of SoFi Stadium than what we have known for the last three decades. Displacing the Georgia-Florida game for two years to Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa in 2027, both teams will go back to Jacksonville in 2028 to a completely new stadium experience, making this year’s World Largest Cocktail Party the last Cocktail Party as we know it.
Yes, the fan split will still be 50/50 right down the middle, yes, I’m sure the bordering student sections in the end zones will remain as rowdy as ever, but the charm of that middle ground will be gone. For example, gone will be the elements, as a SoFi-type canopy will be erected over the entire stadium. From watching Treon Harris run all over our defense on a cold, blistery day in 2014 with temps barely reaching 60 degrees, to roasting in the “sunny” upper deck on a clear but warm day after going too hard at the tailgate in 2023, a canopy will bring in shade and a protection from the elements.
In the Kirby Smart era, Georgia has won 7 of the last 8 years, which has created a phenomenon on UGA social media called “Gator teal,” as the colors of the seats are exposed as the losing team hits the gates early to beat traffic. This is not a new phenomenon, as Florida fans have shared their fair share of empty Georgia side pictures, just something that has picked up steam in the social media era.
“Bulldog teal” and “Gator teal” are a true spectacle amgonst these two fanbases and something I’m sure Texas and Oklahoma fans try to replicate at the Cotton Bowl.
There is no site prettier to my Double Dawg, Georgia fan eyes than a sea of Gator teal, with a sunset on the St. John’s river after a Bulldog win.
However, all the renovation renderings show full crowds, so the seats will be a mystery. Will this be the last year of Gator (or Bulldog) teal? Will the clubs and premium experiences create a Mercedes-Benz like experience and expose the seats all game, losing the effect of the losing team’s fan exodus in the fourth quarter?
I have a feeling that we will go back to Jacksonville in 2028, play the four games in the current contract, and wish the game would go home and home between Athens and Gainesville because the new stadium is more spaceship than World’s Largest Cocktail Party. Which, in Shad Khan’s mind, will be fine. Surely the new stadium will win him a Super Bowl and a National Championship, maybe even a Women’s World Cup host in 2031 too. And Jags fans get a new 30-year lease that keeps the team in Jacksonville. However, for us Georgia (and Florida) fans, Jacksonville will never be the same after this year.
But to be fair, the game hasn’t been the same. For so long, this game was for the SEC East, with the winner of the Cocktail Party winning the East in its final 9 years. No longer is this game introduced with the iconic CBS theme music, as CBS infamously let the SEC walk to ABC after 2023. However, pride and rivalry hatred are still on the line, and that won’t change. The Cocktails will be flowing, the trek down to Saint Simons will still be driven, and the Georgia State Patrol will be ready on 75, 95, and 16 all weekend to pull over their next speed-happy Bulldog victims.
To this version of Jacksonville, thanks for the memories. There’s been some absolutely horrible ones, some absolutely wonderful ones, and some weird ones. Nothing sucks more than losing to your biggest rival (aside from Tech), but nothing feels better than walking down the ramps after beating those pesky Gators. I’ve seen fights in the stands, vomit in the seats from fans not being able to handle their pregame rituals, and those weird religious guys dancing outside the gates.
The memories are countless in each direction- Richard Samuel icing the game in 2011, Jarvis Jones turning into Superman in 2012, the aforementioned Treon Harris diasterclass in 2014, the Faton Bauta diasterclass in 2015, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel running wild in 2017, Eli Wolf of all people clinching the game with a clutch 3rd down catch in 2019, Dwan Mathis in 2020 because both JT Daniels and Stetson Bennett were both hurt, the end of the first half in 2021 highlighted by Nakobe Dean’s pick six, and Brock Bower’s insane catch in 2022 to name a few. Bonus points to the rainy, miserable Gator Bowl vs. Nebraska that we went to as a Christmas time family trip.
Jacksonville, you will be missed, and at the same time, you might not be missed. I’m not sure how the game will go on Saturday with Florida being a question mark with an interim with nothing to lose, but for my sake, I hope the Bulldogs can close out this era of EverBank Stadium with a win and a dose of Gator teal. And if not, oh well, maybe we start a new tradition with Gator red?
But even then, Atlanta and Tampa, and then the new version of Jacksonville, will lack that middle-ground charm that I talked about. We already lost it with the Georgia Dome, and we’re losing it in Jacksonville now, but the world changes, and we deal with it.
With that being said, here’s a toast to the experience in Jacksonville. Drink up on Saturday with your toast. And as the legendary Erk Russell said, screw Florida and the mule they rode on.
Go Dawgs and get ready for some Gator Teal.
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