Tuscaloosa mayor says Alabama football should ditch future spring games, cites staffing concerns
Spring university football matches quickly become one thing in the past, because more than 25 power conference programs abandoned their annual melee this off -season in the middle of increasing concerns concerning the falsification of the transfer portal, the workloads of players and other factors. Alabama held its game one day in 2025, but abandoned its standard format in favor of position exercises and controlled situations, and months after the event, the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Walt Maddox, called for the cancellation of the spring game in the years to come.
Maddox has cited security problems and logistics requires the spring game to be placed in the city as well as its reasoning for the festivities of future receptions of the future.
“From the point of view of the city, I cannot believe it. Twenty years ago, if you had asked me:” Would you like to have one day? “I would say:” Yes, “said Maddox to Tuscaloosa news.” Today, I would say, with all the things that come now, I think it is better for us not to have a day and to focus on the events generated by the AU that do not require as much security personnel and other logistical support. “
The staff endowment of the spring game and the events that coincide with it is a pressure on Tuscaloosa which may not be worth investment and efforts if attendance remains down. Only about 10,000 to 15,000 Crimson Tide fans were one day this spring. It was a decrease of around 60,000 fans of the 2024 event.
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Tuscaloosa authorities responded to shots on the strip – a commercial area near the Alabama campus – a few hours after today’s festivities and closed the working -class district during their investigation, according to Tuscaloosa news. The concerns of overcrowding and security have also shown the region in the matches last spring.
“It will be interesting to see the evolution of a day,” said Maddox. “I don’t know any information, but I don’t think that one day will never exist, at least over the next 10 to 20 years, as it has done in the past.”
Not all university football programs have ax the traditional spring game format this year, but countless teams joined the trend after the Nebraska coach Matt Rhule sounded alarms on post-sample falsification. He said that the calm part aloud on the realities of the spring transfer portal window, revealing that many of its players in 2024 have received any offers from other schools after solid performance. The Cornhuskers organized an event of fans instead of opening their doors for an open scrum.
The other high -level teams to cancel their spring matches in total included Florida State, USC, LSU and Texas. Others moved away from television events to try to keep as many eyes as possible from their players. Michigan broadcast its spring game, but did it on Tape Delay the following weekend after closing the spring transfer portal window.
