I'm not letting this go...

Post by Mike

High school football fans in the state of Georgia deserve an explanation of the events that caused the state championship games to be bumped from the usual Friday and Saturday time slots, to mid-week.

The games were originally scheduled for December 7 and 8 at Mercedes Benz Stadium, but were moved to Tuesday and Wednesday December 11 and 12 when Arthur Blank’s soccer team, Atlanta United, reached the finals of the MLS tournament.

Arthur Blank controls Mercedes Benz Stadium and forced the GHSA to adjust to suit his best interest. Blank’s action is hardly a shock and should have been foreseen as a possibility by the GHSA.

Now thousands of students will be forced to miss days during exam week if they want to attend the games. The schools may dismiss classes for game day, but that day will need to be made up. Yeah.. I know students won’t complain much about getting out of school, but what about the parents?

If you work for a living you know about days offs. They are limited, and usually scheduled well in advance. If your child is playing in the finals and you live in say… Moultrie, you will burn at least one day off of work to attend the game and quite possibly two.

What if you are an official? Being a high school football official is a hobby, not a career. They have jobs. Sure the crews for the original Friday date may have already planned to take a day off, but the Saturday crew? What about support staff and volunteers?

This adjusted date may not seem like a big deal to the average fan, but it was a completely avoidable nuisance. A nuisance we must endure because Arthur Blank out maneuvered the GHSA when the contract was negotiated.

If this contingency was considered ahead of time why not have a viable back up plan in place that would allow for the games to occur on the original dates? Are there any events scheduled at Bobby Dodd stadium this week? What about at Mercer’s new football stadium?

These questions bellow were sent to Dr. Robin Hines, Executive Director of the GHSA, earlier this week. He has not responded as of this posting.

If we don't get a response soon we will be forwarding these questions to the executive committee which is listed here: Click here for member of GHSA executive committee