Will Atlanta host college football’s national championship game in January 2018? The answer will come Wednesday afternoon from playoff officials.
Atlanta is competing against three other cities — Miami, Houston and Santa Clara, Calif. — for the marquee event.
The College Football Playoff’s management committee is scheduled to announce the site choice around 2 p.m., following a meeting at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Ill.
If Atlanta is chosen, the game would cap the first football season in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is under construction next to the Georgia Dome and slated to open in March 2017.
“I feel we as a bid group did everything we could to put Atlanta in the best position possible,” Atlanta Sports Council executive director Dan Corso said. “At the end of the day, you never know how they’ll decide. But we’re excited to find out.”
Atlanta’s bid group also includes representatives of the Falcons, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and Georgia Tech.
Corso said the group’s pitch focused on the new stadium, the city’s history of hosting marquee sports events and the convenient proximity to the stadium of downtown hotels, restaurants and other attractions.
Bids were submitted in May and playoff officials subsequently toured all bid cities, including Atlanta in July.
Corso said the officials haven’t tipped their hand and won’t inform the bidders of the outcome before the announcement.
If Atlanta prevails, the Jan. 8, 2018, game would be the second mega-event awarded to the $1.4 billion stadium. Last year, the NCAA chose the stadium as the site of college basketball’s men’s Final Four in 2020.
Atlanta also is bidding for the 2019 or 2020 Super Bowl. NFL owners plan to choose in May among Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans and Tampa as the sites of those games.
“Imagine if Atlanta has the opportunity to host the college football national championship game in ‘18, the Super Bowl in ‘19 and the men’s Final Four in ‘20,” Corso said. “That’s one great three-year run … a great way to bring in the new stadium.”
The sites for the college-football championship games in January 2019 and January 2020 also will be named Wednesday, but Atlanta didn’t seek those games. It didn’t bid for 2019 because of a focus on trying to land the Super Bowl that year and it wasn’t eligible to bid for 2020 because the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will host a national semifinal.
Bidders for the 2019 game are Charlotte, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, San Antonio and Santa Clara. Bidders for the 2020 game are Charlotte, Houston, Minneapolis, New Orleans, San Antonio and Santa Clara.
The four-team College Football Playoff debuted last season, with its inaugural championship game held at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This season’s championship game will be played in Glendale, Ariz., and next season’s in Tampa, Fla.
The playoff’s management committee, which chooses the sites, consists of 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director.
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