The College Football Hall of Fame will open its new home in downtown Atlanta on the weekend before the start of the 2014 season.
Hall of Fame officials announced Thursday that the long-in-the-works attraction will hold its grand opening on Aug. 23, a Saturday.
The announcement — made on the 45-yard-long indoor football field that is part of the facility — also brought news of the attraction’s official, longer-than-expected name: The College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience.
Lead sponsor Chick-fil-A signed a 30-year marketing agreement, unusually long for such deals. The Atlanta-based restaurant chain wouldn’t disclose financial terms, but Hall of Fame president John Stephenson described the company as the largest contributor to the building, which also has four other founding sponsors (AT&T, Coca-Cola, Kia and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl).
Chick-fil-A’s 30-year deal “is very important in this business model,” Stephenson said. “Everybody is going to come once. The trick is getting them to come back and back and back and back. … You have to spend money to keep the exhibits fresh and market it, and Chick-fil-A’s commitment is going to assist us in doing that.”
The name also is meant to convey, Stephenson said, that “this is a true fan experience,” featuring interactive exhibits as well as historical artifacts.
“I think when fans come into this place they are going to be blind-sided by the experience,” Chick-fil-A executive vice president Steve Robinson said.
The opening comes two years later than the National Football Foundation intended when it decided in 2009 to move the Hall of Fame to Atlanta from South Bend, Ind., but two days earlier than officials targeted several months ago.
Construction began in January 2013 after delays caused primarily by fund-raising difficulties, which were solved with a flurry of sponsorship deals in 2012. Construction will be completed on Aug. 1, allowing time for test runs before the opening, Stephenson said.
“By every metric, Atlanta, Ga. is the place (for the Hall of Fame) to be,” said National Football Foundation president Steve Hatchell, who attended Thursday’s announcement.
The 94,000-square-foot facility has been built on a former Georgia World Congress Center parking lot, across Marietta Street from Centennial Olympic Park.
The project’s $68 million cost was privately funded, Stephenson said, except for $1 million from Invest Atlanta, the city’s development authority. Not included in the $68 million, however, is $15 million in bonds issued by the state to build a parking deck and a connector to the Congress Center.
Tickets, priced at $19.99, will go on sale Aug. 1 through the Hall of Fame’s website: www.cfbhall.com.
Two Chick-fil-A Kickoff games will be played at the Georgia Dome in the week after the Hall of Fame opens — Boise State vs. Ole Miss on Aug. 28 and Alabama vs. West Virginia on Aug. 30.
“Football fans are coming to Atlanta,” Stephenson said, “and we’re going to be open for them.”
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