J.J. Post Aug 20, 2026, 09:00 AM ET

On Thursday night, thousands of fans will flock to Sanford Stadium to watch Georgia play football. Just not American football. The venerable 93,033-seat venue will instead host Georgia's women's soccer squad as it takes on James Madison in nonconference play. And records are in reach: The NCAA's attendance records of 14,410 for women's soccer and 22,512 for men's soccer have stood for 27 and 46 years, respectively. Both could be toppled in Athens on Thursday.

But before there was a shot at a record, there was a uniquely perfect timing. Coach Keidane Mc Alpine, athletic director Josh Brooks and deputy athletic director Stephanie Ransom had mused about Bulldogs soccer in Sanford, and realized the 2026 campaign was a prime opportunity. The men's World Cup had just been held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, with games being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, known as Atlanta Stadium. The women's World Cup is already on the horizon for next summer. U.S. Soccer opened its new Georgia-based headquarters in May, while an NWSL expansion franchise was awarded to Atlanta last fall. All told, these are heady days for soccer in the Peach State.

A plan is one thing. But execution is quite another. So Brooks went to Tanner Stines, Georgia's associate AD who oversees facilities, with a simple request. "Don't freak out." To Stines' credit, there was no freakout. In fact, the request was simply part of business as usual. "We are in the business of not saying no to anything," Stines told ESPN. "We're saying 'how can we best achieve the goals of this department?'"

Helping matters was the fact that remaking Sanford Stadium is something Georgia had recent experience with. A concert co-headlined by Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan was held there in April, and the process for setting that event up -- which included constructing a stage, sound rigging and more -- made repurposing the football stadium for fútbol look like a relative walk in the park.