It will literally be raining money when the Georgia State Panthers take on Georgia Southern as the two in-state rivals face off for the first time on the football field on Oct. 25.
The annual Cash Drop will be featured after the Panthers and Eagles clash at the Georgia Dome.
Georgia’s Own Credit Union partners with Georgia State to create a money giveaway for 500 students.
The 500 students will be randomly selected out of a pool of 1,100 that registered during the homecoming game when the Panthers faced Arkansas State.
Those 500 students will then be brought down to the field at the Georgia Dome after the game and the sky will open up with cash vouchers being dropped on them. The students will then be given the opportunity to scramble for as much as they can get their hands on.
They will then be allowed to take the vouchers to their local Georgia’s Own Credit Union to open up an account and that money will then be placed into that account.
This event has the a two sided approach that will serve two purposes. It will give students some extra money and also aims to drive up student attendance at Panthers’ home games.
“Everybody’s always looking for ways to offset costs and not eat Ramen noodles for three meals a day. So we thought this is a cool way to do that and get some more students involved and how it would work out,” Assistant AD for Marketing Matt Newhouse said.
The format is such that in order to register to be a part of the cash drop festivities, a student had to have attended the homecoming game to register. Students also will be required to attend the Georgia State vs. Georgia Southern game to find out if they were selected to participate.
The cash drop could draw a crowd given the uniqueness of the event. It is not an everyday thing to see cash falling from the ceiling in a stadium as large as the Georgia Dome. This makes for one of the most unique scenes in college football.
The cash drop has seen results in the past. Its buildup can possibly be attributed to the increased attendance from the New Mexico State game to the Arkansas State game. There was a 75 percent increase in attendance between the two games, according to Newhouse.
The fact that the Arkansas State game was this year’s homecoming matchup helped attract fans. But that also helped those that are organizing the cash drop because the only way to register for the cash drop was to be in attendance for that game.
Now an already highly anticipated game gets more intrigue behind it. The attendance for the State vs. Southern showdown is seen as potentially the best attended game of the season.
Now that game in addition the Cash Drop has the chance to create an electric atmosphere in the Georgia Dome.
The goal for Georgia State is to catapult attendance for future games and seasons for football. People who may not get to games that often will come to the State vs. Southern showdown given its rivalry within Georgia. With the cash drop happening, that could also leave a good impression of the experience in those fans minds.
“I think at the level that we’re on we really have to have the mindset that we have to create bigger events out of one game instead [of] trying to spread things out over multiple games,” Newhouse said.
Newhouse elaborated on the idea that given where Georgia State football is that a lot has to be put into individual games as opposed to the entire season.
“If we can put a lot into one game and one event and say it is 20,000 people that show up, those 20,000 people are going to have a great time. They’re going to have a lot more fun. If you spread things out over the games, now that event that could be a much bigger game against a rival team and has a lot more capability to be the huge party,” Newhouse said.
For Georgia State athletics, creating a memorable atmosphere at its football events through these types of events can also be a selling point for prospective recruits. If they’re able to attain that degree of success, it can launch Panthers football to new heights.
