And I’ve gotta say….it’s not that bad.

Check it out: http://www.uga.edu/gameday/

The two pages most fans should read right now are the ones on parking and tailgating.

Many of the changes we’ve heard about to the gameday experience are collected here, and fortunately many of them are clarified. The key points:

• You can park before 7 a.m., but you can’t start setting up and making noise until then. Pretty reasonable. Not too many people crank up the tailgate that early, and being able to at least park before that time will help to alleviate the 7:00 mad rush to grab spaces I was concerned about.
• Parking on grass and other vegetative areas is not allowed (except as designated by the University). I guess we’ll have to wait and see where those “designated” areas are.
• One vehicle per parking space. Big one here. No parking and then setting up shop in the parking space next to you. I like this…you have limited open parking spaces, so put cars in them.
• Fans using a tent or canopy over the tailgate of a vehicle should keep travel lanes open for vehicle traffic and should not take up space in other parking spaces. Along the same lines – park in your space and keep the lot and other spaces open for other cars.

They’ve also addressed the space taken up by so-called “corporate tailgates”. Excellent. Now these behemoths that take over entire lots are to be regulated by the school.

UGA also promises more trash receptacles and portable restroom facilities. Long time coming. We’ll see if it’s enough.

The site is a little short on details right now, such as a parking map and the exact locations of these alcohol-free “family” zones, but it should be enough information to put 95% of tailgaters at relative ease as we make our plans for the upcoming season.