By moving the Florida-LSU game to Baton Rouge, Gainesville hotels can expect to lose nearly a third of their weekend reservations, midtown restaurants can lose into six figures in revenue and souvenir shops will be left with extra inventory.
University of Florida football is big business and the businesses that count on home games for a significant portion of their revenue are hurt by the loss of not one, but two home games this year, for five instead of seven.
The Southeastern Conference canceled the Oct. 8 game as Hurricane Matthew approached Florida and since LSU refused to reschedule the game in Gainesville, UF canceled its game Saturday with Presbyterian College to go to Baton Rouge to play its entire slate of eight SEC games to remain eligible for the conference championship game.