Saturday will be Missouri football’s Southeastern Conference home opener for the season. The day also marks Missouri’s 10-year anniversary of being in the SEC. Much like it did in its first SEC game, the Tigers will face Georgia.
Over 30,000 people will travel to Columbia for the game, said Justin Aldred, Boone County’s District I commissioner, at a bureau meeting Monday.
Megan Walterbach, president of the University of Georgia’s central Iowa alumni chapter, plans to travel to Columbia for the game.
“We’ve been to games over the years where we made trips back to Athens, but this will actually be our first trip [to] Missouri,” Walterbach said.Taking the bus to Columbia
While some Georgia fans are staying overnight in Columbia, Georgia alumni chapters in Kansas City, St. Louis and central Iowa are busing people into town for the game.
Dawn Beck, co-president of Georgia’s Kansas City alumni chapter, said that this Saturday will be the second time she has organized a busing excursion to Columbia. She said that there will be around 50 people riding to the game this year.
Beck planned her first busing event in 2018, but her second attempt was canceled due to the pandemic. She said the crowd’s energy at Missouri games and the environment is similar to Georgia’s campus on game day.
Once the alumni chapters arrive, they will attend a tailgate hosted by the St. Louis and Kansas City chapters. The tailgate will last from early afternoon until after the game.Local businesses prepare
With the influx of fans in town for the weekend, some local businesses are changing their usual routines to prepare for the day.
“We schedule more people and open earlier,” Skylar Bommarito, a waitress at Harpo’s Bar and Grill, said in a text on Monday. “We have a limited menu with higher prices as well.”
Richard Walls, the owner of The Heidelberg, said in an email Tuesday that he “anticipates a great weekend with lots of great people.”
Walls also said that they will be fully staffed and stocked up in preparation for the game. He said there is usually a full house on game days.
Incoming fans can spend the night at one of Columbia’s many hotels, one being The Broadway Hotel by Hilton, which is expecting to be sold out this upcoming weekend. The hotel offers shuttles to and from the game and has partnered with The District to inform guests of what there is to do in downtown Columbia.
Barth Burgin, general manager of the Hampton Inn, said it is 100% booked between this weekend.
“Georgia weekends always fill. They’re one of the schools in the SEC that travels the best, so it’ll be a big weekend,” Burgin said.
Kickoff will be at 6:30 p.m. on Faurot Field. Fans can view the game on SECN or listen on Tiger Radio Network.
