The world's largest outdoor cocktail party will continue to take place annually in Jacksonville through 2021, as Georgia and Florida agreed to a five-year extension on the venue agreement.
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Contract negotiations had taken longer than previous renewals, but Jacksonville.com points out that this extension has two new provisions that make this one more important that the previous ones. First, both Georgia and Florida will now be receiving more money for the game in Jacksonville, as the game reported had a $35 million impact on the city's economy in 2015 alone. Both schools will receive at least $1.12 million over the life of the deal.
Secondly, the contract is up in five years, but re-negotiations on an extension can begin in 2018. This is somewhat a win for the city of Jacksonville, as they want to keep the annual rivalry game in their city, and this help by preventing a contract extension running past a potential deadline.
The Georgia-Florida game is usually seen as one of the biggest rivalry games in the middle of the season, as the two are often either highly ranked, or competing for an SEC East title. The hotly contested series currently favors Georgia at 49-42-2. Florida won the game by a score of 27-3 in 2015.
