NEW STADIUM CALENDAR
Events planned for Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta:
First Atlanta United (MLS) game: March 2017
First Falcons game: exhibition August 2017; regular season September 2017
First Chick-fil-A Kickoff: Alabama vs. Florida State on Sept. 2, 2017, and Georgia Tech vs. Tennessee on Sept. 4, 2017
First SEC Championship game: Dec. 2, 2017
First Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Dec. 31, 2017
College basketball's Final Four: April 4-6, 2020
Atlanta is bidding to host these events in Mercedes-Benz Stadium:
Jan. 2018 College Football Playoff championship game: Decision is expected from playoff officials in the first week of November. Other bidders are Miami, Houston and Santa Clara, Calif.
2019 or 2020 Super Bowl: Decision is expected from NFL owners in May 2016. Other bidders are Miami, New Orleans and Tampa, Fla.
Now that the SEC has a 10-year deal to play its football championship game in Atlanta’s new retractable-roof stadium, the league faces an unfamiliar question: Will it play the game, held indoors since 1994, with the roof open to the elements on occasion?
The answer: probably not.
“I haven’t worked forward through the roof situation quite yet,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday. Then he added: “Our coaches usually have a pretty good interest in maintaining consistent conditions. I’m not going to predict what that means, but I could guess.”
Asked later if his guess is that the roof will remain closed, Sankey said: “Yeah, I think so.”
Sankey was in Atlanta to join Falcons owner Arthur Blank for Tuesday’s formal announcement of a deal — first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution online Sunday — to play the SEC Championship game in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium from 2017 through 2026.
The game — one of Atlanta’s signature sports events — has been played in the fixed-roof Georgia Dome annually since 1994 and will remain there this season and next. The Dome will be demolished when the Falcons’ new home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, opens on an adjacent site in 2017. Construction is about 35 percent complete.
Sankey, who has been an SEC executive for 13 years and succeeded Mike Slive as commissioner in June, said the decision to enter into a 10-year contract with the Falcons for the league’s title game to be played in the new stadium was “relatively simple” because of the event’s successful history in Atlanta.
While some in Atlanta’s hospitality industry had been concerned that other venues, such as the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium, would attempt to lure the event away, Sankey indicated there was little threat of that happening.
“We have a history here, a legacy, and really that informs decision-making because it has worked so, so well,” he said in an interview with the AJC after Tuesday’s announcement at the College Football Hall of Fame. “And then you have the emergence of a brand new venue that will be world-class. The discussions became very quickly focused on what is here in Atlanta.”
Beyond the 10-year commitment, the contract allows the SEC the option of extending the deal for up to two successive five-year periods after 2026.
Sankey mentioned several elements of the new stadium that appeal to the SEC, but he indicated a roof designed to open or close in seven minutes wasn’t a factor in the decision regarding the early-December event.
“I’ve been here now for 13 (SEC title games), and there have been some nice days and some not-so-nice days,” he said. “I think with all that happens around the game, you can play (with the roof closed) and remove the elements and play football. Your fans can enjoy an indoor atmosphere for a big game.
“It is a new issue,” he added of the roof question.
The Falcons intend to play many of their games with the roof open, team officials have said repeatedly.
Even with the roof closed, the SEC expects the stadium to feel connected to the outdoors because a wall of glass behind one end zone will offer a view of the downtown skyline.
“The ability to look into downtown, I think, is actually an important feature,” Sankey said. “When I’ve been in some of the downtown stadiums and arenas and you can look into the city, there’s a vibrancy in that visual. I think it’s important for a city and important for a stadium.”
Blank credited downtown, as well as the new stadium, for landing the 10-year contract, which is unusually long for a marquee sports event.
“I think there were several (other cities) that wanted it, no question about that,” Blank said. “We felt the stadium became the icing on the cake. This is going to be a world-class sports and entertainment facility, but as we try to attract these national events to Atlanta, what is equally important to them is downtown Atlanta (where) you’ve got hotels, restaurants, many other great attractions.”
