The storm ripped a hole in the Georgia Dome on Friday night and forced the SEC to take the unprecedented step of moving the rest of its tournament to Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Because of the smaller capacity ‘ 9,100 compared with the dome’s basketball capacity of 26,000 ‘ there was no way to divvy up the tickets and keep everyone happy. So, only players’ families, cheerleaders, bands and those with working credentials will be allowed to attend, probably no more than 2,000 per game. It will be a surreal setting for the remaining games and surely cause plenty of backlash from schools ‘ especially Kentucky ‘ that had tens of thousands of boosters in the city. The Wildcats faithful didn’t even get a chance to see their team play. Kentucky’s late game Friday night was postponed due to the storm and the damage it inflicted. “We’re hopeful that fans will realize what happened tonight,” said SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom, adding there would be a refund policy. “But we know there will be some frustration for the fans.” The storm struck while Alabama and Mississippi State were in overtime of their quarterfinal game. They were able to finish after a delay of just more than an hour ‘ Mississippi State won 69-67 ‘ but the SEC called off Georgia-Kentucky because of concerns that more strong cells were closing in on the city and the building may have sustained structural damage. Now, either Georgia or Kentucky will have to play a doubleheader today. Their game starts at 11 a.m., with the winner facing Mississippi State about nine hours later. Tennessee and Arkansas will meet in the other semifinal, scheduled for 5 p.m. today. The championship will be played Sunday, as planned, but two hours later at 2 p.m.
