Unprecedented situation raising challenges, concerns for GHSA teams

LEESBURG — As coaches and administrators make plans to handle an unprecedented situation involving Georgia’s high school football championship games, some participants are criticizing the GHSA’s handling of last Friday’s snowstorm and its aftermath.

Coffee County School System superintendent Morris Leis is among those leading calls for GHSA leadership to reconsider the decision made to play the six postponed games, originally scheduled for Mercedes-Benz Stadium, on participating campus sites.

The school that Leis supervises, Coffee, is scheduled to travel to Lee County on Friday to play in the Class 6A championship game. Leis believes the stadium isn’t large enough to handle what he feels could end up, if tickets and seating were available, as a crowd numbering well above the 10,000 mark.

“We feel like it’s a mess, really, and a failure that can be stopped,” Leis said. “A move to a neutral site with adequate seating would make it a positive experience for everybody.”

Barring a late change, Leis won’t get his wish. But plans are being made to accommodate Coffee players, coaches and fans as comfortably as possible at Lee County, with Coffee officials meeting with their Lee County counterparts and a GHSA representative Monday in Leesburg.

Trojan Field’s capacity, when measured according to GHSA bylaws, is 7,500. Tickets sold to last week’s scheduled game in Atlanta will be accepted for admission, and Coffee sold its entire allotment of 4,000 pre-sale tickets last week.

Lee County, meanwhile, sold 2,500 pre-sale tickets, pushing the number of tickets already sold to near capacity.

Steps are being taken, according to Lee County athletics director Hank Wright, to help handle the crowd, from seating to emergency services to law enforcement.

Monday afternoon, Wright was working with crews to figure out how many temporary seats could be placed behind the end zone in front of the school’s new athletics training facility. Permanent seating at the stadium stretches from end line to end line, and seats used by the Lee County marching band are already in place behind the opposite end zone.

Wright said Coffee’s fans would be entitled to half of the seating total, whatever that ends up being after temporary seats are added.

“The City of Albany has reached out with bleachers, and we’ve been in touch with the Marine base,” Wright said. “We’ve gotten a lot of support from the area. This is much bigger than Lee County, and we appreciate folks reaching out to help us put on the best show we can Friday night.”

There’s limited on-campus parking at Lee County, although the school does use lot attendants to direct traffic pregame and law enforcement to help vehicles exit afterward. Wright said plans are being made to use other Lee County School District campuses for parking and to use shuttle buses to the high school, similar to how the school runs its graduation ceremonies.

Still, Leis has concerns.

“We took 10 community buses to Atlanta, plus nine buses for those involved in the game (band, cheerleaders, support personnel) and five charters,” Leis said. “We’ve got 43,000 people in Coffee County, and there’s more in Lee and Dougherty counties. We’ve got capacity concerns.”

The ticket availability situation was a fluid one Monday. Initial plans by the GHSA were to handle advance sales for this week’s games exclusively through its online ticketing partner, GoFan. But online sales for all six games were suspended around midday Monday, according to a tweet from the GHSA, out of stadium capacity concerns. That leaves walk-up sales Friday night as the only remaining avenue in which to acquire tickets.

There’s also potential issues regarding television and video coverage.

With six games taking place simultaneously, GPB will only be able to broadcast one game over its airwaves. That contest will be the Class 7A championship between Colquitt County and North Gwinnett being played in Suwanee. The remaining games will be webcast on NFHS Network, a site that charges a monthly fee to watch games.

There was no indication Monday that the other five games, including Coffee-Lee County, would be webcast on GPB’s website or streamed for free on a social media platform like Facebook.

“That’s a disappointment,” Leis said. “The kids all love having the games viewed by everybody on GPB. That’s a shame if that’s the case.”

The Class 6A championship game isn’t the only one facing capacity concerns. The Class 4A game between Blessed Trinity and Marist also had high advance sales, and Marist announced Monday afternoon that any available tickets to that game would not go on sale until 45 minutes before kickoff Friday, an hour and 15 minutes after gates open to pre-sale ticket holders.