The University of Georgia held their annual "G-Day" spring football game about a month ago and they paid Georgia native, Ludacris, $65,000 to perform prior to kick-off.
The school set an SEC spring game attendance record thanks to Luda's 13-minute performance but UGA's athletic director, Greg McGarity, still felt the need to issue an apology for the way things shook out.
In particular, McGarity was tight about Ludacris' outrageous hospitality rider (shown in the gallery above) which includes requests such as a box of magnum condoms and multiple bottles of vodka, patron and his Conjure cognac.
"Pay me $65,000 AND buy me my own cognac."
Can't blame Ludacris at all, though.
If a school is going to give you $65K for less than 15 minutes of work, you're within your right to ask for the moon when it comes to the hospitality rider. Even if that includes boxes of condoms, Jo Malone candles, wash cloths, cases of gatorade, and unsalted trail mix.
"McGarity, finishing his sixth year as Georgia athletic director, never mentioned directly the fallout from the rider as part of its contract with musical act Ludacris, but those in the board room at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation undoubtedly knew what he was talking about."
“I do want to take this opportunity to apologize to our board for mistakes we made with certain aspects of the details of an entertainment agreement,” McGarity said. “Few things in my professional life have bothered me more than this situation. There are no reruns in life so we need to turn the page, learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to make sure errors of this nature do not reoccur.”
“We didn’t pay attention to details as much as we should have,” McGarity said. “That’s my responsibility, regardless of who signs it.”
"After the quarterly meeting, UGA president Jere Morehead said he “certainly appreciated that the athletic department took responsibility for some of the terms in that contract. Obviously in retrospect they should have done a more thorough job of reviewing all of the riders and removing those that were objectionable. I appreciate that he’s accepted that that’s what athletics should have done and what it will do moving forward.”"
[Via]
