Atlanta’s bid that secured college basketball’s Final Four for the new Falcons stadium in 2020 calls for local organizers to spend up to $8.5 million in taxpayer money to stage the event, according to bid documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The money will come from a portion of the Atlanta hotel-motel tax designated for use in bringing major conventions and sporting events to the city.
The 200-page bid, which last week resulted in the NCAA awarding the men’s Final Four to Atlanta for the fifth time, provides a window into the competitive and costly world of pursuing marquee sporting events.
The bid documents detail a wide range of local costs associated with meeting NCAA requirements — from big-ticket items, such as stadium operations and fan events, to smaller expenditures, such as dressing up the city in Final Four decor and conducting background checks on volunteers.
Aside from finances, the bid emphasized the record crowds at the 2013 Final Four here, the new retractable-roof stadium slated to open in 2017 and the close proximity to the stadium of hotels and other attractions.
Atlanta was among five cities awarded Final Fours when a year-long bid process ended last week, joining Phoenix (2017), San Antonio (2018), Minneapolis (2019) and Indianapolis (2021). Three bidders were denied: North Texas, New Orleans and St. Louis.
The funding for Atlanta’s Final Four budget stems from 2011 votes by the Georgia Legislature and the Atlanta City Council that raised the city’s hotel-motel tax from 7 percent to 8 percent, with the additional 1 percent — which brought in $7.03 million last year — to be used only to boost the city’s convention and special-event business.
“It was passed so we could have a funding source to go after big events like the Final Four,” Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau president and CEO William Pate said in an interview this week. “One of the beauties of this model is that the preponderance of the tax money is supplied by people from outside the state, people visiting the state.”
Pate, a member of Atlanta’s Final Four bid group, said the NCAA was told that the added 1-percent tax revenue, which can be rolled over from year to year, will be sufficient to cover the entire $8.5 million budget of the local organizing committee. Up to $800,000 could be recouped — and rolled back into funds available to pursue other events — from a 10-percent commission that hotels participating in the Final Four room block will pay to the organizing committee, he said.
For the most part, the Atlanta bid focused on showing how a Final Four here would meet all NCAA specifications. The NCAA gets free use of the stadium, controls ticket sales and retains ticket revenue. It also gets use of 50 percent of the suites. The stadium will be configured to seat 83,036, according to the bid.
Beyond the basics, the bid was sweetened with one “enhancement”: an offer for members of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament staff and the NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee to visit Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Montana.
“NCAA staff and Committee members can utilize the ranch for a three-day team-building experience and take advantage of the inspiring setting to collectively create ideas that elevate the NCAA Tournament,” according to the Atlanta bid documents. “The NCAA’s use of the ranch includes lodging, all meals, gratuities and on-ranch activities including riding, hiking, golfing and fly-fishing instruction.”
The cost of the visit is not included in the local organizing committee’s $8.5 million budget.
The budget lists $3.15 million for stadium expenses, including $1.06 million for costs associated with installing the NCAA’s temporary seating system that extends the seats to court-side.
Another $3.33 million is budgeted for expenses of fan events, including space for “Bracket Town” in the Georgia World Congress Center, concerts in Centennial Olympic Park and other ancillary events.
The bid also provides detailed information on Atlanta hotels, including room rates and distances from the new stadium site.
Atlanta previously hosted the men’s Final Four in 1977 at the long-gone Omni and in 2002, 2007 and 2013 at the Georgia Dome. The 2013 version drew about 100,000 basketball fans to downtown, generating an economic impact that various studies estimated at $70 million to $110 million.
“It’s a great piece of business economically, and it has a great social impact on the community,” Atlanta Sports Council executive director Dan Corso said. “To be able to showcase our community and this region is a great opportunity.”
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