JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For two years, Jacksonville won’t be home to the annual matchup between the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs as EverBank stadium undergoes renovations.
The game will be played in Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa in 2027.
“They gotta do what they gotta do. They have to work on the stadium. One year in Tampa and one year in Atlanta it’ll work out great,” Aamir Waheed, a Florida fan, said.
Enrique Hinojosa, a Georgia fan, said the announcement was bittersweet.
“Not because of the locations just because it’s not RV City,” Hinojosa said. “The friends and family we made here over the years probably won’t reunite there. And what we do here you can’t do there. So we’ll probably skip out those two years.”
On the other hand, other people didn’t mind it.
“We’ll be in Atlanta at Mercedes Benz in 2026 and Tampa in 2027,” Randy Stone, a Georgia fan said.
“I started thinking how am I going to get my RV down there,” Richard Dean, a Florida Fan. “Where are we going to park the RV? We’ll get there. We’ll figure it out.”
The games not being played in Jacksonville in 2026 and 2027 aren’t a first.
In 1994, the game was played in Gainesville, and in 1995 it was played in Athens.
Stone said he’s just glad the decision-makers chose a neutral site for 2026 and 2027.
“If they take campus to campus, I don’t think it’ll ever comeback to a neutral site,” Stone said.
This game is one that brings in a lot of money to our area.
According to Katie Mitura, chief marketing officer for Visit Jacksonville, the estimated economic impact the game had on our area in 2023 was nearly 38 million dollars.
Their chief marketing officer broke it down even further and said the direct cash spent, or money spent on things like hotels and other businesses was nearly 22 million dollars last year.
In 2022, the economic impact was nearly $40 million, while the direct cash spent was almost $23 million.
The game not being in Jacksonville could mean a loss of money for the area.
News4JAX asked Visit Jacksonville for comment about the game’s relocation and the potential loss of money for the area.
They said, in part. they are “really excited about the new stadium in 2028…and we are doing a lot of work to fill in the gap for the business holes during those years.“