Atlanta selected as finalist for college football playoff. (Dallas: hotel, better)

[gtcorndog]

Originally Posted by tonygeorgia

Lol....u need to be a comedian

His assessment seemed pretty accurate to me.

[cqholt]

Atlanta will have the College Football Hall of Fame. Atlanta is College Football, with the SEC championship game, Chick-fil-a Bowl, and Chick-fil-a Kickoff games. LA is not a College Football town. Jerry World has nothing around it. Miami's stadium has nothing around it and its 20 miles from Miami Beach. NOLA is historically a major bowl. Glendale is not a college football town.

[testa50]

Honestly I think Atlanta is probably best as a semifinals city. For semifinals, there is probably going to be some worry about fan fatigue and lack of ability to travel. If a team like Arkansas makes it to the national championship, many fans will simply refuse to travel to Miami then to Los Angeles/Phoenix. Many will probably just say, "Well, I can only afford to go to one, and I couldn't live with myself if I missed by team play in the National Championship Game, so I'll just hope they win the semis and plan to go to the national championship if they do."

Our assets in terms of fan concentrations:

- Major, dedicated alum networks from many SEC and ACC schools. Atlanta is probably the single largest out-of-state concentrations of fans from, at a minimum: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, South Carolina, Clemson, Florida State, Tennessee, and UNC. Maybe Miami too. I'm only listing teams that have half a chance of making it to the semifinals anytime soon. We definitely have big alum networks from schools like Duke, Vandy, NC State, and the Mississippi schools as well, but they are all irrelevant anyways. The only city that probably comes close in terms of having the biggest concentration of out-of-state alum networks for so many contender schools is Dallas.
- Significant alum networks from Big Ten schools. Lots of Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, etc alums/fans around.
- Major alum networks from the rest of the SEC schools (LSU, Arkansas, etc) as well.

So probably 90%+ of the time there will be at least one competing school in the top four within a day's drive of Atlanta. And a significant portion of the time your biggest out of state fanbase for one of the four teams will be IN Atlanta. That means your floor is pretty high for fan attendance. You'll never have a disastrously under-attended game under these circumstances.

If you start having teams like Pittsburgh and West Virginia face off in Los Angeles in the semifinals...you're going to risk having a complete attendance disaster on your hands. Possibly facing off in Miami too (which is a full extra day's drive past Atlanta for dozens of major schools). You've GOT to think more regional with regard to a College Football playoff in the earlier rounds, and Atlanta is basically perfect for being a semifinals city, with good proximity to tons and tons of major football schools and a solid fanbase from tons of schools due to the astronomical domestic in-migration over the years from throughout the south and midwest.

This isn't the pros, where every game except the Superbowl will be at a home stadium; you're counting on a lot of fanbases to pack up and travel across the country to watch a football game. If you have the mix of an inconvenient destination, weaker teams participating, and no local fanbases, you can end up with a disaster like the 2007 ACC Championship Game. Atlanta probably has fewer disaster-type matchups than just about anyone.

Yeah, for the finals, make everyone pack up and go to Miami, Phoenix, or SoCal. They'll do it. But doing that two games in a row is too much for many fans to bear.

[cqholt]

If you have the mix of an inconvenient destination, weaker teams participating, and no local fanbases, you can end up with a disaster like the 2007 ACC Championship Game

ACC Championship needs to be played in Atlanta as well.

[Onthemove2014]

Did someone just say Atlanta is only beat by NYC and LA in "fun"? That person is either a troll or someone who hasn't been anywhere becuase I've never heard that opinion before.

[atlantagreg30127]

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Like so many times, a handful of people are already taking a topic OFF topic, and starting to toss insults at each other. No more warnings. If you want to continue to be able to post - stop now. Otherwise, the next one gets a vacation, and there's plenty of room on the train car for more.

[po-boy]

Originally Posted by testa50

Honestly I think Atlanta is probably best as a semifinals city. For semifinals, there is probably going to be some worry about fan fatigue and lack of ability to travel. If a team like Arkansas makes it to the national championship, many fans will simply refuse to travel to Miami then to Los Angeles/Phoenix. Many will probably just say, "Well, I can only afford to go to one, and I couldn't live with myself if I missed by team play in the National Championship Game, so I'll just hope they win the semis and plan to go to the national championship if they do."

Our assets in terms of fan concentrations:

- Major, dedicated alum networks from many SEC and ACC schools. Atlanta is probably the single largest out-of-state concentrations of fans from, at a minimum: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, South Carolina, Clemson, Florida State, Tennessee, and UNC. Maybe Miami too. I'm only listing teams that have half a chance of making it to the semifinals anytime soon. We definitely have big alum networks from schools like Duke, Vandy, NC State, and the Mississippi schools as well, but they are all irrelevant anyways. The only city that probably comes close in terms of having the biggest concentration of out-of-state alum networks for so many contender schools is Dallas.
- Significant alum networks from Big Ten schools. Lots of Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, etc alums/fans around.
- Major alum networks from the rest of the SEC schools (LSU, Arkansas, etc) as well.

So probably 90%+ of the time there will be at least one competing school in the top four within a day's drive of Atlanta. And a significant portion of the time your biggest out of state fanbase for one of the four teams will be IN Atlanta. That means your floor is pretty high for fan attendance. You'll never have a disastrously under-attended game under these circumstances.

If you start having teams like Pittsburgh and West Virginia face off in Los Angeles in the semifinals...you're going to risk having a complete attendance disaster on your hands. Possibly facing off in Miami too (which is a full extra day's drive past Atlanta for dozens of major schools). You've GOT to think more regional with regard to a College Football playoff in the earlier rounds, and Atlanta is basically perfect for being a semifinals city, with good proximity to tons and tons of major football schools and a solid fanbase from tons of schools due to the astronomical domestic in-migration over the years from throughout the south and midwest.

This isn't the pros, where every game except the Superbowl will be at a home stadium; you're counting on a lot of fanbases to pack up and travel across the country to watch a football game. If you have the mix of an inconvenient destination, weaker teams participating, and no local fanbases, you can end up with a disaster like the 2007 ACC Championship Game. Atlanta probably has fewer disaster-type matchups than just about anyone.

Yeah, for the finals, make everyone pack up and go to Miami, Phoenix, or SoCal. They'll do it. But doing that two games in a row is too much for many fans to bear.

Great post. I agree completely. Unless they completely ********** thing up, the national championship game is going to sell out...people will fly to wherever to see their team compete for a championship.

But the semi-finals are going to be a harder sell, and I agree that fans will be a lot more likely to attend semi-finals if they can drive to them. I believe they have already announced that the existing BCS bowls will be in the semi-final rotation and there are just a couple of spots left, which will probably go to the Cotton/Dallas and Chick-fil-A/Atlanta. After reading your post and thinking about it, I think at least one of the semi-final sights should be somewhere more northerly/midwestern...perhaps Indianapolis which would be ideal for Big 10 fans. Chicago would be awesome if they had a dome, but without a dome the weather may be too big a factor...

[testa50]

Right, a Midwestern location would definitely work well, but given that fact that it's college it would almost certainly have to be an indoor stadium. Atlanta is a decent compromise for all: it's a day's drive from most of the big Midwestern schools and a stone's throw from the SEC. Midwest is the reverse, so it's not terrible: just has more weather issues and generally transportation would be more difficult (Atlanta's airport is a big asset in case we get a team like Oregon). But Atlanta is WAY more convenient to Midwest fanbases than New Orleans or (particularly) Miami.

[po-boy]

The Midwest colleges seem to do just fine with their attendance despite being outdoor stadiums, but for a bowl game/playoff I agree they need a dome. That is why I suggested Indianapolis. Lucas Oil Stadium is supposedly quite nice.

Like you said, Dallas and Atlanta are great as far as proximity to fanbases. New Orleans is okay. Phoenix and Miami are more of a hassle.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by po-boy

Great post. I agree completely. Unless they completely ********** thing up, the national championship game is going to sell out...people will fly to wherever to see their team compete for a championship.

But the semi-finals are going to be a harder sell, and I agree that fans will be a lot more likely to attend semi-finals if they can drive to them. I believe they have already announced that the existing BCS bowls will be in the semi-final rotation and there are just a couple of spots left, which will probably go to the Cotton/Dallas and Chick-fil-A/Atlanta. After reading your post and thinking about it, I think at least one of the semi-final sights should be somewhere more northerly/midwestern...perhaps Indianapolis which would be ideal for Big 10 fans. Chicago would be awesome if they had a dome, but without a dome the weather may be too big a factor...

what about Detriot?? With this new system does it kill all the bowl games? Meaning after the regular season Only the 4 schools get the spotlight? That would be pretty interesting. I don't really like the idea of the same places getting all the money over & over. Its to be a way to expand the championship. To 3 games instead of one.