The College Football Hall of Fame, which opens its new home in Atlanta next month, spread the word at SEC Media Days on Thursday.
John Stephenson, the Hall of Fame’s president and CEO, told the assemblage that the downtown Atlanta location near other tourism and sports attractions scores big for the hall.
“I would have to say that if there were a place to put a college football attraction that is anchored by the Hall of Fame, it would be on this exact 2.7 acres,” Stephenson said.
The 94,000-square foot facility is in the final stages of construction on a former Georgia World Congress Center parking lot, across Marietta Street from Centennial Olympic Park. The National Football Foundation voted in 2009 to move the hall to Atlanta from South Bend, Ind., where it struggled to draw fans.
“A city’s effort to build an attraction like this to draw tourism to its city is the opposite of what’s happening here,” Stephenson said. “We’re building this attraction in the middle of an already very active tourism and business travel district, not to mention all the football traffic that happens here.”
The hall is scheduled to open Aug. 23, the Saturday before the start of the college football season. Tickets will go on sale Aug. 1 at the hall’s website, www.cfbhall.com, Stephenson said.
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