Classic City Championship to be held at Akins Ford Arena

Clarke County School district athletics are expanding to new venues. The Classic City Championship will be held at the Akins Ford Arena on Dec. 20. The fun-filled day begins with the junior varsity girls and boys games at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. respectively. Following junior varsity is the varsity women’s game at 5 p.m. and men’s game at 7 p.m. This event will only be the fifth sporting event at the newly constructed, $151 million arena, and first sporting event that is not an Athens Rock Lobsters home hockey game. 

“We were contacted by the Akins Ford Arena Sales Manager, Todd Avery, back in the spring. He had an interest in bringing the game to make it part of the grand opening for the Akins Ford Arena. We (Clarke Central) were hosting the December game at Clarke Central, so we decided instead of playing that game at Clarke Central, we would be able to play the game at Akins Ford Arena,” Clarke Central Athletic Director Jon Ward said.

Tickets went on sale on Oct. 25 and start at $10 for general admission, ranging between $17-$38 for reserved seating, according to the Classic Center website. Roughly 100 tickets have been sold so far. If the game is held at the arena annually, the plan is that the schools will alternate who hosts it.  

“Part of the agreement with the team is to ensure that they both get the revenue, and ideally more, that they were committed to or what they’re used to getting when the game was hosted at one of the schools. So basically, a no risk situation for the schools and an opportunity to hopefully raise some more money for each of them,” Akins Ford Arena general manager Danny Bryant said. 

An advantage to this event being held at the Akins Ford Arena are the concessions that will be available for purchase. 

“We have a full concessions setup within the arena itself, and so you’ll have all your fan favorites, like popcorn and hot dogs and chicken tenders, but also some fun things in there that might be unique to our arena. Your-Pie will be our official pizza provider, so they have a stand in there. And we’re looking forward to working with different local providers as well to help fill out our concessions,” Bryant said. 

Undoubtedly, the largest roadblock heading into the Classic City Championship is how NCAA football playoff implications could impact this event. With the new 12-team format in college football, there are many different possible outcomes as to where the University of Georgia could play. The four highest-ranked conference champions earn the top four seeds in the playoffs and receive a bye in the first round games, which are on the weekend of Dec. 21. This means that if UGA wins the Southeastern Conference, there will be no clash between a UGA playoff game and the Classic City Championship. However, if UGA does not win the SEC, tricky situations emerge. 

“Originally, the (Classic City Championship) game was scheduled for Saturday the 21st . The NCAA playoff first round is the weekend of the 20th and 21st, so there are three playoff football games on the 21st, and one game on the 20th. With Georgia, there’s a three in four chance that if they finished fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth they would host that Saturday. There’s still a slight chance that they could finish and host as fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth on that Friday. But right now, we would be on Friday, more than likely they would be on Saturday, if they finished fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth,” Ward said.

Because high school gymnasiums can only host a maximum of 1,500-2,000 fans, the games are always filled to the brim. Additionally, the need for mass promotion is unnecessary because the schools always fill up the stands regardless. Since Akins Ford Arena can seat roughly 8,500 people, Ward hopes that this event attracts more interest from fans who would not normally attend. 

“This is more than Clarke/Cedar basketball. This is a great opportunity, a great facility for our community. We hope people that obviously normally would not attend a game will attend in order to see the new facility, to support our student athletes, both at Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals. We’re having both the JV games, boys and girls, and the varsity games, boys and girls, being played. So, you know, it’s up to the community as with regard to how many people show up,” Ward said.

Despite the assumption that this event would affect the mindset of the players due to a larger crowd and different gymnasium, senior Cedar Shoals varsity girls basketball player Kameran Brown believes otherwise.

“I am very excited about playing in the arena, especially since it’s my senior year. I get to play in a bigger space against our rival team Clarke Central. It will give more people the chance to see us all play. Playing in the big arena I’m pretty sure won’t affect my game, I probably will be a little nervous at first but hopefully I can still play my game and get this W,” Brown said.

Junior Cedar Shoals varsity boys basketball player Tristan Hull believes that the arena will bring a new feeling to the Classic City Championship.

“I’m really excited to play in the new arena. I think playing in the new arena will turn the game into more of a community event. As for the game, I think it will have a lot more energy than it has in previous years. I’m grateful that we have the opportunity to play in the arena because I know a lot of people have worked hard behind the scenes to schedule the game there,” Hull said. 

Among the many positives this event will bring to CCSD is the opportunity for Athens and the CCSD community to support each other. 

“I just think that we’re really excited that this is one of our inaugural events. I think this will be the seventh event in the building. So it’s really exciting for that to be one of the signature events that we’re hosting early on. To get the members of our community in here to support them they’ve already been excited about. I’m hoping that it draws other folks and attention to a game that maybe people outside of just the schools want to come check it out and see the great talent that’s going to be on display,” Bryant said. 

Moving forward, Bryant believes the arena can be another great resource for the Clarke County School District to use to host large, district-wide events. 

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the school district to host graduation here and just be able to give them another resource for those large capacity type events. We’re here to be an open door, and have obviously worked together well already setting up a couple of these events. So, we want to continue to keep that relationship open and grow and make this a second home for the members of the school district, the attendees, the students and teachers, make it feel like a place that they have a lot of pride in,” Bryant said.