Atlanta Sports Council President DAN CORSO is counting down the days until his city hosts the CFP National Championship on Jan. 8 at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This weekend, he will get to witness a trial-run of sorts, as top-ranked Alabama takes on No. 3 Florida State on Saturday night on ABC, followed by Georgia Tech taking on No. 25 Tennessee on Labor Day. While Corso does not have an official role with the games this weekend, he will be hosting guests from the CFP during FSU-Bama. While the FSU alum will certainly have a personal stake in the outcome, he also will be cognizant of every business aspect of the matchup, from how the stadium performs to every detail of the fan experience.
SIGN OF THINGS TO COME: We’ve got some CFP folks here this weekend as part of a site visit and we’ve been meeting with them throughout the week. We’ll be going to the game together and garnering their feedback, especially as we move closer to Jan 8. Who knows. We might even have a rematch of Alabama-Florida State that same day, but that may be wishful thinking on my part. That said, I’m cautiously optimistic for the Seminoles. I think we’ve got a shot. I hope we keep it close and then we’ll see. I’ve also got a whole family of Florida State fans that will be in town as well. We’ll experience the game as fans together, but then again at the same time, you’ve got to have your work hat on as well. Look at everything from outside and inside the stadium because it’s just too good a chance to audition things for the CFP Championship. We’ll have a debrief with the CFP folks after the game about how things went.
EVENT PLANNING: We worked closely with groups like the Falcons, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the city, state and the Peach Bowl to get together a bid for the championship game back in ’15. Now we are two years into the planning. This weekend will be a great preview of what we’ll have come that day. It’s very competitive when cities are trying to secure the rights to host these major events like this. Thankfully we have a brand new stadium surrounded by 12,000 hotel rooms that are all walkable to the stadium. There’s public amenities that make for a very compact environment. Plus I really believe Atlanta has become the epicenter of college football. I can’t think of another city that has had two major sports facilities open up in the same year like we’ve had with Mercedes-Benz and SunTrust Park. It’s been one heck of a year here in that regard and we’ll be working with the Braves hopefully in the years to come on hosting the MLB All-Star Game. Plus you’ve got the Super Bowl in ’19 and the Final Four in ’20, so it’s going to be an incredible run here in Atlanta for the years to come.
IN THE MEANTIME: When I’m not working on the weekends, my wife and I are almost always taking our two teenagers to their sports events. I also really enjoy yard work and find it to be a good way to decompress. Socially, there’s great food and amenities here in Atlanta so my family and I really try to take advantage of that when we can on the weekends.
