Georgia football program paid insane fee and hospitality rider to Ludacris

The Georgia football program is celebrating the most successful spring game in school and SEC history, but at what cost did the SEC record attendance come?

93,000 people packed Georgia’s Sanford Stadium this past Saturday for a spring scrimmage game. Acquaintences of mine who attended the

game

party said officials were literally turning people away at the gates. Athens was in November form just for an inter-squad scrimmage.

Related Story: Some Georgia Fans Upset With Ludacris Performance

Some would say that the event was a success because it showed the fans rallying behind new coach Kirby Smart, new (probable) quarterback Jacob Eason, and gave on-hand recruits a glimpse of how hunky-dory things are at Georgia right now.

Stuff and nonsense, I say.

Last week, I bid farewell to what we once knew as the spring game, and as each day passes it seems that the business of college football is an out of control mutant entity which swallows anything in its path – including common sense.

As an example, I give you this. (Hold on to your seats if you just recently paid a tuition bill to the Georgia Board of Regents).

The 15-minute…let me repeat that…fif-teen-mi-nute pregame entertainment was provided (at the last minute) by local hip-hop talent, Ludacris. Obviously this was a big draw for the youth and for recruits, so if a musical act was needed to beef up the festivities (it wasn’t) then Luda was a solid choice.

Georgia Bulldogs

As the Atlanta-based rapper offered his services at the 11th hour, it’s not surprising that he’d ask for some sort of honorarium. He’s a businessman and entertainer, and should be paid for his services.

What he asked for (and presumably received) was completely insane, as reported by Macon.com.

I’ll hit some of the highlights of the contract and hospitality rider.

For starters, it cost the Georgia athletic department $65,000 for Ludacris’ quarter-hour “performance”. For that price, he could have attended UGA twice and received two bachelors degrees. Oh…”plus local ground transportation”. Heaven forbid Luda use any of his own gas.

But things really got silly when you looked at the hospitality rider. For those of you unfamiliar with the entertainment industry, a “rider” is a list of things which an artist requires in his dressing room, green room, hotel room, etc. before they will agree to a performance.

Did I mention this was a 15-minute performance?

The rider starts off in a fairly normal manner, requiring a dozen clean white towels, and dinner for at least 10 people, with very specific dietary demands (or the option of paying $40 per person cash up front for food). Despite the fact that this was a brief stop in Athens, clean towels and a dinner certainly doesn’t seem out of line (despite the $65k check he was getting that day).

But once we get to the section about what Ludacris required in his room…well, I’ll just let you read this section.

You can read the entire contract here – G Day Concert Agreement

So, apparently, Ludacris had intentions of feeding a small poverty-stricken village, as well as dispensing various personal hygiene items and birth control devices to the poor souls. He’s a special kinda guy. That, or he’s opening his own Golden Pantry location near campus.

The jokes just write themselves on that list of demands.

In all seriousness, I don’t begrudge Ludacris or any artist their demands. If that’s what people are willing to pay and give to have them perform, then more power to them. What does bother me is that university funds (go ahead, argue that it came from the boosters, it still could have been put to better use) went for something so trite and meaningless.

Was this year’s record-breaking G-Day a big boost for recruiting? Meh…maybe, maybe not.

Obviously any recruits who commit and even whisper about the spring game are going be lauded as “a result of G-day”. But the truth is, if players are committed to a program and the coaching staff it really wouldn’t make a difference how many people turned out for the spring game. If any player did commit as a result of a 93,000 person party and 15-minute rap performance, I’d question both the motives and character of that recruit.

Just think about this. These recruits who were supposedly lured in by the dazzling display of team and fan unity will receive no pay once they step on the field as Georgia Bulldogs (or any other D1 team). They’ll become more cogs in the NCAA machine which uses false paternalization as a backdrop for not compensating players beyond their scholarships.

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The school can give an artist $65,000 and a grocery shopping list that looks like it was made for the Duggars (minus the condoms) for 15 minutes on stage, but they can’t find it in their black-and-red hearts to make sure their players are taken care of and treated fairly.

Well played, coach Smart. You’re off to a great start.