The leader of the group that will oversee operations at a College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta said Monday that the project is on schedule to open by the end of 2014 and will have an economic impact of more than $12.7 million annually.
But he didn't say when work will begin.
John Stephenson, interim chief executive officer of Atlanta Hall Management, which is responsible for bringing the attraction to the city from South Bend, Ind., told state legislators that AHM needs to finish working on engineering plans for the building, its budget and negotiations with banks on construction costs "before we have our final top-line budget."
"We expect this to be a tourism driver," he said. "We expect this to be a place that will cause, with the other attractions, people to stay longer. And it will have real economic impact."
Announced to great fanfare in September 2009, hospitality leaders had hoped to have the facility built and operational later this year on what is now the "green lot" of the Georgia World Congress Center. But as the economy soured, fundraising woes kept the project from getting off the ground.
In February, Stephenson told Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau leaders that AHM was reassessing the entire project, examining everything from expected annual attendance to the size of the facility. In April, AHM presented its findings to the National Football Foundation, which owns the rights to the facility.
"We sort of went into a quiet period, which is why you haven't heard much from us in a while," Stephenson told the legislators, who were meeting Monday during a three-day conference on Georgia tourism.
Stephenson told legislators that AHM has secured about $42.5 million in commitments for the project, with some of the donors coming from out of state. But when pressed to name a few, he declined.
"They are names you would recognize," he said. "We are not disclosing all the names right now. Once we get over the next couple of humps, we're going to celebrate our sponsors."
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