The Georgia Bulldogs and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will play in the Sugar Bowl as part of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals Thursday night following a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street that left more than a dozen people dead.
Sugar Bowl officials and lawmakers decided to postpone the game until 4 p.m. ET after it was the final game of a three-game playoff series on Wednesday. Both schools arrived in New Orleans on Sunday and were reportedly just blocks from the massacre that hit the city.
Fans in attendance in the Big Easy scrambled to make their final plans with the game on hold.
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A mounted police officer arrives on Canal Street after a vehicle plowed into a crowd in New Orleans on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)
Lisa Borrelli, a 34-year-old Philadelphia resident and Notre Dame graduate, came to New Orleans with her fiance to watch the Fighting Irish.
“We can’t get new flights,” he told The Associated Press, adding that he understood why officials postponed the game and that it was “absolutely the right decision.”
Borrelli said they paid more than $250 per ticket and didn’t bother listing them on a third-party site because the prices were so low. Early Thursday morning, tickets were selling for as little as $26 at some sites.
“Of course we’re disappointed to miss it and lose so much money, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter,” Borrelli said. “We’re lucky we’ll be fine.”
Darrell Huckaby, a 72-year-old Georgia resident, told the AP he decided to return home Thursday rather than stay to watch the game. He said he was in a room overlooking where the attack occurred. He said he was asleep when it happened, but when he woke up, he saw blankets covering the bodies.
Huckaby said he would “probably eat” the $360 per ticket he paid.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said. “I think most people’s first instinct this morning was to want to be home. As important as football is to our Georgia culture, for a while, the game just didn’t seem to matter.
Fans line up at the Sheraton Hotel lobby after the CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinals between Georgia and Notre Dame were postponed following an attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025. (Images by Geoff Burke-Imagn)
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“And I think there was a lot of uncertainty, and I understand that,” Huckaby said. “It took them a long time to decide the timing of the game and people had to make decisions without all the information.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told NBC News on Wednesday that the game should be postponed until Friday.
“It’s not my decision, but I would like it to be delayed at least one more day. If you asked me my opinion, I would tell you,” Murrill said. “I think it was wise to delay it at least a day. This is an active crime scene, and they just finished removing some of the bodies, and they haven’t removed all of them yet. I still think we have to wait an extra day.”
Georgia and Notre Dame players spent the day indoors and spent most of their time in ballrooms during meetings. Georgia players were bused to the Superdome for a walk-through practice Wednesday night.
Notre Dame players watched the Rose Bowl quarterfinals with their family. Notre Dame offered band members the option of flying home early and some opted to do so.
The terrorist attack left several people injured, including a University of Georgia student.
“I am deeply saddened by the devastating attack that occurred overnight in New Orleans and extend my deepest condolences to the victims, their families and everyone affected by this terrible tragedy,” said University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead. , in a statement.
University of Georgia and Notre Dame Sugar Bowl fans stop to take photos as New Orleans police and federal agents investigate a suspected terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025 . (Chris Granger/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)
The University of Georgia Athletic Association and Notre Dame officials said both schools had accounted for all team staff and members of official travel parties.
Security will be reinforced during the game. The security perimeter around the facility was “extending to a larger area,” New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno told WDSU-TV before the game was postponed.
“More police officers are arriving,” he said.
Caesars Superdome is also the host site for Super Bowl LIX.
The Superdome hosted the first Super Bowl after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The city also beefed up security, with officers, including snipers, atop surrounding skyscrapers as well as on the roof of the dome.
