For nearly 33 years, Bob Williams has been the man inside the arena.

Williams, general manager of Philips Arena (a post he's had since it opened in September 1999), actually has worked in the same spot since he graduated from college in 1975.

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As a grunt-level employee, Williams was making $500 a month with the Atlanta Hawks in the three-year-old Omni Coliseum. He kept getting promoted until he became president of the Omni in 1994, only three years before that arena was imploded to make room for a bigger, better model on the same site.

Williams has witnessed the ups and downs of downtown through the prism of one of the city's key facilities for concerts, sports and events.

"Last year was Philips Arena's most profitable year ever," Williams says. "The arena has been profitable every year it's been open. And it will continue to be, or my successor will make sure that happens."

Philips Arena has continued to hold its own despite numerous other new venues that have opened or are opening up all over the region.

"With all the competing venues vying for a finite amount of talent, it's a buyer's market," Williams says. "We have to be very cautious negotiating our deals because in the concert industry the amount of money you can make is disproportionate to the amount of money you can lose."

Back in 1994, Stan Kasten, then president of the Atlanta Hawks, announced that the basketball team was going to move to a new arena in the suburbs. It was a matter of money, Kasten said. Not only would a new arena provide more boxed suites and club seats, the northern suburbs would draw more people to the venue.

Centennial Olympic Park was only on the drawing boards, so people could not yet envision how that part of downtown would experience a resurgence.

"There was a time when I thought the new arena should be built in the suburbs," Williams admits. "It was prior to seeing the vision of what downtown could be."

At that time, there was a trend among major U.S. cities to move sports-entertainment venues to the suburbs.

The credit for the arena staying downtown goes to Ted Turner, then the CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, which owned the Hawks and had the operating rights for the arena.

Then Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell cornered Turner at a charity event after the news came out about the plans to move to the suburbs. Turner told Campbell he would do everything he could to keep the venue downtown.

After the dinner, when asked about their conversation, Turner responded by singing Petula Clark's song "Downtown," including the chorus: "Downtown. Things'll be great when you're downtown. No finer place for sure, downtown. Everything's waiting for you downtown."

As Williams says, Turner's position gave the Hawks less negotiating leverage when dealing with the city of Atlanta and Fulton County. "He essentially sent us to war with rubber bullets," Williams says. "But the arena was built where it should have been."

Today, that looks like an inspired decision. Philips Arena is the largest indoor concert venue in metro Atlanta, and its central location makes it accessible to people from throughout the region.

"It allows us to reach out to a wider disparity of socio-economic groups, and it provides entertainment options to every demographic in the market," says Williams, who is joining the board of Central Atlanta Progress. "Now downtown is perceived as a cool place to go."

In fact, Philips recently was recognized by Pollstar Magazine as the No. 3 concert and events venue in the country based on attendance in 2007.

It's not as though there aren't lots of choices for sports and entertainment venues in the region.

In May, the $35 million outdoor Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta will open as a new venue for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as well as major musical acts like the Eagles and Rod Stewart.

Gwinnett County recently decided to finance a new $45 million baseball stadium for the Atlanta Braves' top minor-league affiliate.

In September, the $145 million Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre opened, serving as the home for the Atlanta Opera in addition to other musical and theatrical acts.

The main competition for Philips Arena actually is Gwinnett Arena, which seats about 12,000 people, compared with 20,000 at Philips.

The Gwinnett Arena, part of a $90 million expansion of the Gwinnett Civic and Cultural Center, opened five years ago and has lured such popular acts as Coldplay, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, the Who and a return of the Georgia Force arena football team.

And then there are several older venues, like the Lakewood Amphitheatre and the Chastain Amphitheater.

Of course, there's also the home of the Atlanta Falcons — the Georgia Dome — but it is not a key concert venue.

Williams contends that Philips is the top venue in town with its ability to attract the hottest acts. This year, it will host Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Barry Manilow, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z and Avril Lavigne.

The $213 million arena, now in its ninth year, was built with 30-year bonds, and Philips signed on to a 20-year naming-rights deal that was speculated to be as much as $200 million. (Philips does have a pricey exit clause after year 12.)

Meanwhile, Williams' oversight of Philips Arena has remained steady despite different owners and superiors.

Plus, the job has other benefits. "I'm father of the year, every year," Williams says, because his two children love going to concerts as well as basketball and hockey games.

"Actually, my life gets better every year," says Williams, 54. "This is a business that keeps you young."

And Williams also knows that Philips Arena helps keep downtown alive.