On the day after college football adopted a four-team playoff, Atlanta sports executives were plotting how the city could get in on the action.
Those efforts, they said Wednesday, will include a bid by Atlanta to host the national championship game for one or more years and probably a bid by the Chick-fil-A Bowl to become a regular rotating site for semifinal games.
"We will do everything we can to position our community and hopefully be successful in the process," said Dan Corso, executive director of the Atlanta Sports Council. "... Obviously a lot of cities will be interested in pursuing this, but we think Atlanta would be a premier site for the championship game."
The playoff will feature semifinal games that rotate among six bowls and a championship game that operates outside the bowl system and is put up for bids by cities, similar to the way the NFL chooses Super Bowl sites.
Corso said the Sports Council, the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Georgia Dome/Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Falcons will collaborate on putting together a bid strategy.
"We'll get everyone around the table and attack the opportunity," Corso said.
Among the questions they must tackle: Which year(s) to attempt to bring the championship game here in light of ongoing negotiations between the Falcons and the GWCC Authority about a proposed new retractable-roof stadium to replace the Georgia Dome?
The playoff will begin with the 2014 season, and if Atlanta were to host the championship game or semifinals in the first few years, the Georgia Dome would be the site. But if Atlanta were to host late in the decade — and if the Dome's successor stadium were to open in 2017, as proposed — the new facility would be the site.
Corso and Chick-fil-A Bowl president Gary Stokan said they don't know yet which year(s), or which stadium, will be part of an initial bid.
"We have the Georgia Dome currently standing, which is a premier facility," Corso said. "... As we work later in the rotation, I think a new stadium would fit into that."
Stokan said a new state-of-the-art stadium "would further differentiate" an Atlanta bid from competitors. But he said the Georgia Dome would be an attractive site as well, noting that it will host college basketball's Final Four next year and has a stellar record of hosting marquee college-football games.
"There's not an atmosphere in the country that surpasses the Georgia Dome when you put two college teams and their fans in that facility," Stokan said.
Bid procedures and requirements have not been spelled out for the playoff, and bidding likely won't begin until this fall. But clearly the competition will be considerable to host a part of college football's long-awaited playoff.
The six bowls that will rotate as semifinal sites — each hosting a semifinal twice in a six-year period — will include the Rose Bowl, the "Champions Bowl" (a recently announced SEC-Big 12 partnership at a still-undetermined site) and probably the Orange Bowl.
The Sugar, Fiesta and Cotton bowls also are expected to be strong contenders for the semifinal rotation, and one of them could morph into the "Champions Bowl." Other bowls expected to seek semifinal spots include the Chick-fil-A, which also is interested in exploring "Champions Bowl" possibilities, and the Capital One, which is played in an Orlando stadium that recently announced a $175 million renovation.
The bidding for the national championship game will be even wider open. Bidding will be open to all cities, regardless of the stature of its bowl in the traditional pecking order or even whether it has a bowl.
"The Georgia World Congress Center Authority is thrilled with the prospect of Atlanta being considered as host site for the new college football championship game," GWCC Authority spokeswoman Jennifer LeMaster said. "We believe we have the right venues and the right event professionals to put together a comprehensive and competitive bid."
Said Stokan: "The playoff allows Atlanta to do what we do best, and that is hopefully successfully bid on a major sporting event. Whether it's the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Final Four or the SEC Championship game, there are very few cities that can line up and match what Atlanta has been able to successfully execute over the years. Hopefully we're given an opportunity to do the same with the semifinals or the finals or both."
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