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Monday, April 28, 2008
Welcome to Business Insider: Your comments are welcome. Do you believe big festivals should return to Piedmont Park?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Welcome to Business Insider, a new blog that will give you insight on what’s happening in the Atlanta business community, with a special emphasis on civic issues.
This will be an opportunity for you to weigh in with your own thoughts and insights. I hope Business Insider will become a town forum where all of us metro Atlantans can weigh in on what’s happening in our community.
For example, what is the future of Atlanta’s major festivals? Is the recent drought becoming an excuse to kick out the top festivals and events in Piedmont Park?
City officials say no. But festival organizers can’t get a straight answer about whether they would be able to move back to Piedmont Park once the drought is over.
The Atlanta Dogwood Festival, the city’s longest running festival, was forced to move to Lenox Square’s parking lot after 70 years in Piedmont Park. The Peachtree Road Race, the Atlanta Pride Festival and the Atlanta Jazz Festival also have had to find new locations this year.
But what about next year? Can these festivals thrive outside of Piedmont Park?
The larger question is whether Atlanta is anti-festival or a festival-friendly city. What do festivals mean to communities? And what role does Piedmont Park play in our region?
Read more about festivals in Piedmont.
Let me know what you think. And welcome to the beginning of what I hope will become a thoughtful dialogue on issues that impact our community.
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Sunny times for Tour de Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Only the skies were overcast Sunday as the sixth annual Tour de Georgia came to a close at Centennial Olympic Park.
Only last year, the future of the signature bicycle race was in question. Tour organizers had been scrambling for sponsors and trying to come up with a workable management structure for the race.
“I honestly believe we have solidified the future of the tour and opened a lot of eyes in terms of the tour’s potential,” said Chris Aronhalt, managing partner of Medalist Sports, which organizes the race. “Last year was a struggle. We feel great now. We are very excited about the future of the Tour de Georgia.”
AT&T, the $500,000 presenting sponsor of the race, also is pleased with the Tour.
“It was fantastic,” said Sylvia Anderson, president of AT&T Georgia. “When you have an event like this that is so successful and so well done, we certainly will look hard at this on an ongoing sponsorship basis. This is one event that touches the entire state, and then you have have to factor in the international exposure.”
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who chaired the non-profit board that oversaw the race, called the event “phenomenal,” because of the audience turnout at every stage of the competition.
“It’s really a chance to welcome the world to Georgia and showcase all that Georgia has to offer,” Cagle said. “It’s also an opportunity to promote healthy lifestyle choices. And it’s on the best financial footing it’s ever been in.”
That’s despite the tour not having had a title sponsor for the past two years. For the first three years, Dodge was the $1 million title sponsor; and Ford dealers were the title sponsor in 2006.
Aronhalt, who still hopes the race will attract a title sponsor next year, said the tour had more sponsors this year than any other year. They raised more than $3 million in sponsorships compared to $2.4 million the year before. Aronhalt said several new sponsors came on board, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and Georgia Power.
The Tour’s foundation also gave $250,000 to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Aflac Cancer Center. And the Rock Racing bicycle team contributed another $250,000 — $165,000 to Children’s; and $85,000 to the Georgia Cancer Coalition. The combination of those two gifts is, by far, the largest philanthropic donation in the Tour’s history.
Anderson said the race is a good way of letting Georgians know that the telecommunications company continues to be committed to the state. “We actually have fared well in Atlanta,” she said, adding that at the time of BellSouth’s merger with AT&T, employment in the state was about 25,000. Today, she said the company “hovers between 24,000 and 25,000.”
