Georgia football has a new official capacity in Sanford Stadium. How many more Dawgs fans can there be?
Way back in 2016, first-time head coach Kirby Smart inspired a fan base to make the Georgia football spring game 93K Day.
Now every game day should hit that number in a stadium that has a school record sellout streak of 71 and counting.
Sanford Stadium has a new official capacity: 93,033.
The increase of 287, from 92,746, came after the second phase of a $68.5 million renovation to the 95-year-old stadium. The change came quietly, only a mention on page 125 of Georgia’s 202-page media guide.
Georgia added the high-end “1929 Club” in prime viewing spots where the longtime press box was located on the 200 level on the south side.
A new multi-level press box will open in the southwest corner of the stadium with sight lines from what Georgia has said would be from the goal-line to the 5-yard line. Six new premium suites will be on the press box lower level.
“This project helped us bring that number up above 93,000,” athletic director Josh Brooks said.
The new capacity is still less than the record crowd of 93,246 for the Notre Dame game in 2019, when 500 temporary seats were added.
Even after this increase, Georgia went from the fifth-largest capacity among SEC schools to sixth behind new conference member Texas, which is listed as 100,119, according to UGA. Georgia still ranks as the ninth-largest on-campus stadium with Michigan Stadium No. 1 at 107,601 and Penn State’s Beaver Stadium No. 2 at 106,572.
This is the first change to Sanford’s capacity since 27 skysuites were added in 2004 that added 688 new seats to the north side suite level. That followed 5,500 new seats added in a second upper deck on the north side a year earlier.
The latest renovation expanded the 100-level south concourse and Gate 9.
Georgia plays the first of six home games in the 2024 season on Sept. 7 against Tennessee Tech. Remaining tickets for that game are now sold out, according to Georgiadogs.com, but the Nov. 23 game against UMass still has 600 level tickets remaining.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Sanford Stadium will have a new capacity after renovations