Alex Golesh has said and done everything right since accepting the Auburn head football coaching job in November. He’s made the rounds to win support from a hungry fan base that just wants to see a winning product on the field, something that hasn’t happened since the world was just coming out of deep lockdown due to COVID.
But buddy, the 41-year-old Golesh missed the mark when discussing Auburn’s season-opening game against Baylor, which was moved from Jordan-Hare Stadium to Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for NIL purposes.
“The people here in Auburn maybe aren’t as fired up in the sense that that home game got moved to Atlanta, but there’s a lot of advantages for us,” Golesh said during an interview with 680 The Fan in Atlanta. “We’ve got such a huge alumni base there, really just the entire state of Georgia, that place will be rocking with blue and orange.”
Yes, as Golesh said, Auburn fans will fill the downtown Atlanta stadium and outnumber Baylor fans by 100-1, if not more. That’s great, but that isn’t why fans aren’t “as fired up” about the game being taken away from the Plains.
Auburn fans have a right to be upset after being loyal during the losing season
Maybe he doesn’t realize it, and it seems that some other powers that be at Auburn don’t either, but a home game in Auburn means a lot of things, but the most important is a boost to the local economy that many businesses count on for the year. Hotels, restaurants and bars are all packed, and a weekend can bring millions of dollars to this not-so-small-now town in Eastern Alabama.
But more than that, you are asking your season-ticket holders, those who continually donate to the scholarship funds and, by the way, have filled Jordan-Hare Stadium over the past five losing seasons, for even more. You are telling them that $5 million or so in NIL is worth more than their loyalty, and if that is the message Auburn wants to send, no one will buy it.
It’s taking away family traditions, all of which mean much more after they were taken away during the 2020 season. And, for the record, you are taking away one of the best home-field advantages in college football.
Is the NIL money worth it? I guess to some, it is. But it’s not worth ticking off a majority of your fan base for. And it’s not worth losing the support of those who have been loyal through the darkest of times.
Yeah, it’s great that those who live in the Atlanta area get a de facto home game for themselves, but that’s never stopped those who live in the 404/470/678/770 area codes from making the trip down to Auburn, a place they adore and love, for a game.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be rocking with the sounds of “War Eagle” on the first Saturday in September. It would have all sounded much better in the place that Auburn fans call home.
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