by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
Considered one of the top 10 football rivalries by most football fans, the annual Georgia vs. Florida game has become a tradition of headaches and heartaches for fans and Jacksonville residents alike. But for this year’s game on Nov. 1, there will be a few tweaks to the way the City handles the game and fans.
“The concept is the same,” said Christina Langston, the public relations manager at the City’s Office of Special Events. “We just have different events going on.”
As Special Events Manager Theresa Price puts it, they don’t like to change the event. They like to “keep refining it.”
“Because it’s such a tradition, people literally come back to see each other every year,” said Price. “They don’t want it to change a lot.”
Price adds that safety is the most important thing on the minds of planners. That’s how the Student Safety Zone first came about. In recent years, there have been Downtown incidents on the weekend. A well-publicized beating that resulted in a young man’s death, for instance, gained national publicity.
“Both universities and the City of Jacksonville were concerned about safety,” said Price.
Hence, the Student Safety Zone came about. Set aside for any person in need of assistance, the zone is a safe haven for people that aren’t familiar with the area or are intoxicated. It also has a number of cell phone chargers in case a phone goes dead before, during or after the game. Its location for this year’s game has yet to be announced.
“The Student Safety Zone was actually the first of its kind,” said Langston. “Now it’s being used by other places, so it’s like a prototype.”
Because both universities have their own Student Safety Zones, students and faculty from both universities come down for the weekend to volunteer as part of the team that operates the Student Safety Zone.
“We bring in students and faculty from both universities,” said Price. “And the students that are brought in to help from the universities are very proactive because they actually go out into the crowd to see if there are any potentially harmful situations.”
Price adds that while there aren’t any new things happening fo this year’s game, there are little ways that it’s being refined.
“It’s so big that we’re always refining it,” said Price. “The stadium even goes through changes because the schools want it to look less like a professional stadium and more like a college stadium.”
The colors aren’t the only things that change. Every detail is replaced — even the napkins.
356-2466