The Sugar Bowl — one of the most anticipated football games of the year — has been postponed twenty-four hours after a horrific New Year’s Day attack left scores dead in the city of New Orleans, the location of the big CFB quarterfinal tilt.
Jeff Hundley, CEO of the Sugar Bowl, announced Wednesday morning that the football game between 2-seeded University of Georgia and 7-seeded Notre Dame University would kick off Thursday night just before 8 PM local time, instead of Wednesday night as planned, after consulting with the teams, TV network, and others.
“All parties and all agree that it’s in the best in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game for 24 hours,” Hundley said.
The decision comes after a man intentionally crashed his vehicle into throngs of people celebrating the New Year around 3:15 AM on Bourbon Street, according to the FBI … killing at least 10 people, and ~35 injured.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Anne Kirkpatrick, Superintendent of the New Orleans PD said Wednesday.
The Bureau says the attack, allegedly perpetrated by a 42-year-old man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
No one in NOLA wanted to cancel the game, but at the end of the day, keeping people safe was clearly the priority, according to Congressman Troy Carter from Louisiana.
“The football game is important, it’s a major event,” Carter said. “People have come from all over the country, but nothing is more important than public safety and making sure that we’re protecting the citizens and visitors alike.”
The game will still be played at Caesars Superdome … just one mile from the attack site.