The earliest Mercedes-Benz Stadium can get another opportunity to host the Final Four is '27, and Atlanta Sports Council President Dan Corso said that the city "plans to submit a bid when the NCAA begins the process next year of choosing sites" for '27-31, according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. Atlanta lost this year's event due to the coronavirus, and Corso said, “It’s disappointing that we’re not going to see (the 2020 Final Four) to fruition, but at the end of the day I know our planning was sound and our reputation and partnership with the NCAA remains sound." Tucker noted some "modifications of the stadium for the Final Four had begun before the cancellation, including preliminary steps to black out exterior light for basketball and engineering work in the rafters to prepare for the center-hung scoreboard required by the NCAA." But AMB Group CEO Steve Cannon said the "real effort was going to begin almost immediately after the Atlanta United match (originally scheduled for Saturday)." Cannon: "So in that regard the (timing of the NCAA’s) call saved us a fair amount of conversion costs." He added his group was "disappointed," but in "light of everything that is going on, the NCAA made the right call" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 3/15).
