Super Bowl Live on Saturday saw a capacity crowd cap off Atlanta's 10 days of festivitiesBYRON SMALL
Super Bowl week "went about as well as Atlanta officials could have hoped," according to Mandel & Williams of the ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE. City officials "stuck to their plan in the 10 days of festivities leading up to the game, including a capacity crowd for Super Bowl Live on Saturday night." The NFL and the city were "aided by warm temperatures in the days leading up to the game -- minus the snow scare on Tuesday that cut attendance at festivities substantially." That helped "ease some fears from Super Bowl planners, who admitted jitters about the weather causing heartache, as was the case 19 years ago" when the city hosted Super Bowl XXXIV. Poor weather "also marred" the CFP National Championship in January '18 and the MLS Cup Final in December. But it was "partly cloudy and in the 60s" at kickoff last night (BIZJOURNALS.com, 2/3). In Boston, Christopher Price writes Atlanta "did a terrific job" hosting. Mercedes-Benz Stadium is "great," and the game "went off without a hitch." Atlanta should be expected to "get another Super Bowl relatively soon" (BOSTONSPORTSJOURNAL.com, 2/4). ESPN's Mike Golic said, "Kudos to Atlanta, you did a great job hosting the Super Bowl.” ESPN’s Mike Golic Jr.: “The people around there and the volunteers were there all hours of the day and night to make sure people knew where to go and had the information they needed. That was a first-class job.” ESPN’s Trey Wingo: “The volunteers were phenomenal and everyone had a smile. The whole Centennial Park thing -- they were jamming to tunes the whole time. I do love a Super Bowl where there is a concentrated effort of everything being in a downtown area like that" ("Golic & Wingo," ESPN Radio, 2/4).
LOCAL SCENE: In Atlanta, Oliviero & Suggs in a front-page piece note Super Bowl LIII "showcased the city’s sparkling new" $1.5B stadium while also "tapping its rich civil rights legacy." One of "several poignant moments" was the opening coin toss by Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. She was joined by former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). Moments before the coin toss, the NFL "ran video across the Halo Board of Martin Luther King Jr., along with excepts from his speeches." The video was also "included in the live CBS game broadcast" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 2/4). In S.F., Scott Ostler writes the NFL "spent a lot of time" during the Super Bowl "patting itself on the back about its charitable contributions to social-justice causes, and its admiration for freedom and equality" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/4).
