Morning, y’all! I don’t believe in April Fools’ Day because life is foolish enough as it is. Happy very normal, well-behaved first day in April.
Let’s get to it.
A LOOK INSIDE ‘THE CENTER’
The Complex Formerly Known As CNN Center is taking shape before its June 12 opening. The AJC got an inside look at the revamp — plus intel on plans for some of the complex’s many office towers.
- The whole project will cost $425 million, says Chris Eachus, founding partner at the property’s owner CP Group.
- Nearly half that has already gone into the atrium’s food hall and The Center’s four entrances.
What the food hall and atrium will look like:
- The atrium will support 11 food and beverage options that range from Italian and Latin eateries to chef-driven dining concepts.
- That includes what CP Group says is “the largest bar in Atlanta.”
A World Cup pop-up:
- The Center has partnered with FIFA for a 30,000-square-foot exhibition on the ground level. It will be redeveloped after the World Cup festivities.
🔎 READ MORE: What else we can look forward to at The Center
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COSTLY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Who doesn’t want to play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium? The Georgia High School Association held its football championship title games at Atlanta’s favorite metal donut, but the experience came with a cost.
Lower attendance and rising costs for the title games cost the GHSA an unprecedented $150,000 shortfall. It also sparked a debate among coaches and athletic directors over whether the location was worth the trouble.
How the math mathed:
- This was the first time GHSA games lost money, prompting the association to pull from its reserves to ensure the 16 participating schools got their usual payouts, averaging about $10K each.
- The three-day paid attendance was down 10.6% — to 46,132 from a record 51,588 in 2024.
- Mercedes-Benz Stadium charged $705,262 for rent and $138,396 in fees ($3 per ticket).
- Gainesville athletic director Adam Lindsey was among those who would prefer the finals return to high school fields “to preserve the authentic high school atmosphere.”
“Winning is expensive. When you factor in the logistics of five extra (playoff) games — charter buses, lodging, and nutrition — the math doesn’t work. It is a disservice to our schools to be forced into paying for empty, oversized stadiums," said Lindsey.
🔎 READ MORE: GHSA loses money on football championships, pays schools $150K from its own fund
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🫏 Local leaders across metro Atlanta on Tuesday excoriated a Republican-passed bill that would make most local races in Georgia’s most populous — and most Democratic — counties nonpartisan. Officials are urging Gov. Brian Kemp to veto the measure.
⚔️ The runoff battle between Democrat Shawn Harris and Republican Clay Fuller in a deep-red corner of Georgia offers an early test of whether U.S. strikes in Iran are hardening partisan lines or opening new fault lines in Trump country.
🌿 Georgia lawmakers are weighing changes to how people can — and cannot — use hemp. Proposals would ban synthetic hemp products, expand who qualifies for medical cannabis and lift the cap on the concentration of THC.
✈️ Delta Air Lines plans to bring faster Wi-Fi to more than a third of its fleet through a partnership with Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite communications network, Amazon Leo, starting in 2028.
🛋️ Wayfair spent almost $22 million renovating a former Walmart on the edge of West Midtown and Buckhead, for the online furniture company’s first Atlanta store.
JAMES BEARD AWARDS
It’s award season in the foodie world, and two of Atlanta’s finest are finalists for the prestigious James Beard Awards.
- Mujō executive chef J. Trent Harris is a finalist in the Best Chef: Southeast category. The AJC last year named Mujō as the best restaurant in Atlanta, and it’s earned a Michelin star for all the years the guide has covered the metro area.
- Aria is up for the Outstanding Hospitality category for the second year in a row.
- Meherwan Irani and Molly Irani, who own Chai Pani in Decatur and Botiwalla in Ponce City Market, are finalists in the Outstanding Restaurateur category.
🔎 READ MORE: Atlanta restaurants that didn’t quite make the cut
Meanwhile, Atlanta’s Jeff Banks, mixologist and owner of King Cube, is one of 15 finalists competing in the United States World Class Bartender competition finals in Chicago, May 11-13.
He has a very intriguing background, including a former career in crime scene cleanup. What a pivot.
🔎 READ MORE: 3 cocktail recipes Banks says every home bartender should know: Tommy’s margarita, Tom Collins and an old-fashioned
NEWS BITES
South African politician snorkels in giant pothole to highlight city management failures
Take note, Atlanta politicians. A new bar has been set.
Wild wolf bites woman in a shopping district in Germany
News headline or a Brothers Grimm fairytale?
Brahms takes the spotlight in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s 2026-2027 season
I love ASO season announcements, it’s like classical Christmas.
ON THIS DATE
April 1, 1918
Atlanta clocks are now running on new schedule. Atlanta begins work today with no more concern for the clock-changing order, put into effect Sunday morning, than would be exhibited had the sun, of its own accord, started to rise and set on a new schedule. Every clock in the city, if running at all, is today running evenly with every other clock. The ordinary citizen does not notice the change. Sunday saw many laggards penalized for failure to obey the national summons. They missed trains, and dinners, and sweethearts, all because they forgot to set their watches and clocks ahead an hour Saturday night or Sunday morning.
See? We’ve always hated daylight saving time. Whether the Georgia Senate’s recently passed bill aimed at permanently shifting the state to Atlantic Standard Time is the right move ... debatable?
ONE MORE THING
A special thanks to my comrades in arms, editor Eric and producer Nicole, for pinch-hitting parts of today’s newsletter as I do journalism nerd stuff in Chicago. You would be shocked at how long a group of newsletter people can sustain a conversation about email service providers.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
About the Author
AJ Willingham is an National Emmy, NABJ and Webby award-winning journalist who loves talking culture, religion, sports, social justice, infrastructure and the arts. She lives in beautiful Smyrna-Mableton and went to Syracuse University.
