Football hall narrows site choices, but still has way to go

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Gary Stokan announced in September 2009 that the College Football Hall of Fame was moving to Atlanta almost a year ago, he set a timetable to keep the project moving along.

His goals for the first six months were to name an architect, start seeking corporate donations and select a site.

Now, almost a year later, many of those marks still have not been hit.

The project’s completion date has been pushed back four months, fundraising hasn’t started and Stokan is getting a second opinion on annual attendance projections — a key selling point in luring the hall to Atlanta.

Stokan says the delays don’t indicate that the project is in trouble. He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that potential sites have been narrowed down to two parking lots close to Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta’s central visitation hub.

One is at Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Harris Street; the other is a lot used by the Georgia World Congress Center for conventioneers on Marietta Street. The latter site, however, would come with a number of bureaucratic obstacles, including a possible review by the Legislature, that could once again throw off the timetable.

“We love both sites,” Stokan said, adding that the next step is to begin negotiating with G.E. Capital, owner of the Harris Street lot, and the GWCC Authority to see which site makes the most sense financially and offers the best visitor access. “We think both would be tremendous opportunities.”

Steve Robinson, a member of the board bringing the hall here, said any concerns about unmet timetables are overblown. Robinson, who is the chief marketing officer for Chick-fil-A, which has promised $5 million for the project, said much of the delay has come at the board’s direction.

He said the board instructed Stokan to hire a consultant to double-check the attendance projections — Stokan estimated as many as 500,000 people would come annually — because members wanted to make sure the numbers were realistic.

Robinson also said the board wanted to hold off on seeking corporate donations until a site is selected.

“We wanted to be able to answer the logical question that they would have, which is, ‘Where is it going to be and what’s it going to look like?’ ” Robinson said.

Kimberly Meesters, a spokeswoman for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, agreed. She said having a physical structure to show has been critical in getting companies to give. The $195 million Charlotte attraction, which opened in May, was built with funds from a 2 percent increase in the city’s hotel/motel tax and about $20 million in bank loans.

“The economy is tough, and it is hard to sell a project that isn’t built yet,” she said. “Sponsors want to see something tangible.”

There is a lot riding on Stokan and his staff to get it right.

The $50 million, 50,000-square-foot facility is relocating to Atlanta because its owner, the National Football Foundation, expects a bigger visitor turnout than the attraction had in South Bend, Ind. That facility averaged about 60,000 visitors annually, far less than the 200,000 people it had expected every year. Its highest attendance of 150,000 visitors was reached its opening year in 1995.

Boosters believe the hall will do better in Atlanta partly because of the region’s zeal for college football and partly because it would be part of an entertainment district with other tourist draws, such as the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola and Philips Arena.

Atlanta and the state of Georgia have also given to the project. The Atlanta Development Authority has pledged $10 million in new market tax credits, as has SunTrust with $15 million in new market tax credits. The state passed a bill during the spring to fund $10 million in general obligation bonds for real estate. And the Chick-fil-A Bowl donated $5 million while Coca-Cola has promised $2.5 million in cash and $5.5 in marketing dollars.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development, which will oversee state funds for the project, declined to comment. Calls to the ADA were not immediately returned.

State Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and a fan of the project because he thinks it has great economic potential, said the delay isn’t upsetting.

“I would love to have it built tomorrow, but I realize that when you have something this big, there are going to be hiccups. If the delays go on too long, yeah, that’s a problem, but I haven’t seen anything that says that things have slowed more than usual.”

“We [state leaders] are kind of part of the holdup,” Harbin said. “I wish we could sell those bonds to get things going.”

Harbin also wasn’t concerned about attendance projections.

“I don’t know if the 500,000 is right,” he said. “But if it brings in only 300,000 or 400,00 people, we’ll be all right.”

Stokan said the hall will generate almost 900 construction jobs when building begins in August 2011. That work is expected to have an economic impact of $91 million, and sales tax revenue is expected to be $4.9 million.

Steve Hatchell, president of the National Football Foundation, who was in Atlanta on Friday to visit with Stokan and attend some of the events surrounding Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, said the pace of the project doesn’t concern him and that he fully backed its direction.

“This move is not casual,” he said. “This is not ho-hum, we’re moving to Atlanta. This is about how do we best serve the sport.”

Hatchell said that might sound esoteric, but museums are a tough sell in a digital age, when visitors expect excitement and interactivity. It is crucial that every effort is made to get the right mix of activities — many of them interactive — to make it a draw that gets repeated visits.

Exhibits under consideration for the football hall include blocking sleds that would allow visitors to see how much force they can exert to move a defensive line and an immersive 3D game that would put attendees on the football field, Stokan said.

But the project still has hurdles to clear.

For one, choosing the GWCC site could pose time issues. If chosen — Hatchell said the roughly 2-acre site is attractive because it’s horizontal and is large enough for outdoor space — it would have to be approved by an ad hoc committee of the GWCC, which has been reviewing it since June, then go before the full authority board. It would then be addressed by several state departments and possibly the Legislature, leaders of the authority said.

Harbin said he doesn’t think the legislature would have to get involved in approving a lease between the hall and the GWCC authority, which he said has been given a certain amount of autonomy so deals like the hall’s can be handled efficiently.

“I think the Legislature would bog it down if we got into,” he said. “There are times when it is best to let those professionals make the decisions, not make it political.”

One other wrinkle concerning the GWCC site is that authority has long-range plans to create a new front door for the nation’s fourth-largest convention center by using the site to expand Building A to Marietta Street. That has led to discussions between Stokan and the GWCC’s authority about combining the buildings, which would mean the state would collaborate on the hall’s design.

“In that case, that could accelerate our plans [for expanding Building A to Marietta Street],” said GWCCA executive director Frank Poe, who said the GWCC would more than likely lease the property to the hall instead of selling it. “We told Gary that it will take a lot of steps before getting finalization of a deal.”

And when Stokan meets with companies to get corporate donations, he’ll be doing so in a poor economic climate where donations have been scarce.

“In general, sports sponsorship deals are getting done,” said Jennifer Karpf, president of the National Sports Marketing Network, a trade association for the sports business industry. “However, there is bigger focus on return on investment than ever before. Sports properties must show value.”