On Saturday, October 3, 2020, the University of Georgia hosted the first home football game of the 2020 season. The Auburn game was the first at the university since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and game days in Athens, which bankroll downtown businesses, was anything but typical.
After the Auburn game, it became clear after the Auburn game, hosting only four home games will bring far less business to Athens than years prior, as many feared. Every enterprise in downtown Athens must now adapt to survive.
The Auburn game highlighted how some businesses that usually rely on football tourism have been affected by the virus. For some establishments, particularly bars, it was business as usual. For others, like dine-in restaurants, operations have been entirely flipped onto their heads.
Students wearing UGA and Auburn gear stand in line outside Bourbon Street waiting to get inside just before kickoff on Oct. 3, 2020. During the game, students and visitors from out of town who couldn’t attend the game still made the best of the leisure opportunities in Athens regardless, of the most part, of inherent risks. (Photo/Ian Allen, medium.com/@ianallen)
A young bystander is given a virus-themed balloon given to him by protestors outside the gates of Sanford Stadium just before kickoff. The small group of protestors held signs denouncing the university for hosting a potential super spreader event. Some protestors dressed as the COVID-19 virus and plague doctors. In the background, throngs of fans prepare to watch kickoff despite not being able to enter the stadium. (Photo/Ian Allen, medium.com/@ianallen)
On the day of the Auburn game, Oct. 3, 2020, game attendance and general tourism were down drastically in Athens because of attendance limitations and health concerns. Some businesses rely on the increase in revenue football season brings, and the first home game of 2020 made it clear that this season will bring existential challenges for some. (Photo/Ian Allen, medium.com/@ianallen)
Clarke’s Standard, a restaurant in downtown Athens, uses the new parklet pilot program recently established by the Athens-Clarke County government, on Saturday, October 3, 2020. On certain streets in Downtown Athens, restaurants are eligible to expand outdoor seating areas into parking spaces. Clarke’s Standard and several other restaurants provided patrons a place to sit, eat and watch the game. (Photo/Ian Allen, medium.com/@ianallen)
A steady stream of customers come to Bubble Cafe in Downtown Athens to order takeout on Oct. 6, 2020. Casual dining venues in Athens have changed their operating models because of the pandemic. Bubble Cafe adapted its new location to address public health concerns by vastly reducing seating and building a plexiglass barrier between employees and customers. (Photo/Ian Allen, medium.com/@ianallen)
Since March 16, 2020, Avid Bookshop’s storefront in Five Points has been closed to shoppers. This local business struggled to compete with Amazon before the pandemic, and it has not yet joined other retailers in Athens in reopening its physical location. The bookseller is having to innovate fiercely, and events typically hosted in-store have been moved online. (Photo/Ian Allen, medium.com/@ianallen)
