Atlanta's growth into a premier attraction for major sporting events

In 1996, the City of Atlanta hosted its first major international sporting event as the Summer Olympics introduced the southern city, then known mostly for its ties to the Civil Rights movement, to the world. Fast forward to now, and Atlanta has since hosted two Super Bowls, three NCAA Men’s Final Fours, two College Football Playoff games, one College Football Playoff National Championship, and 28 consecutive SEC Championship games and there is more to come.

COPA America, a CFP Quarterfinal game, the CFP Championship, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and World Cup are among the next major sports events coming to Atlanta over the next couple of years and on Tuesday, Katie Kirkpatrick, President and CEO, Metro Atlanta Chamber, joined The Steakhouse with Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden, to discuss Atlanta’s emergence as one of the top cities in the world for hosting sporting events.

“We have the largest sports campus in the United States.” Kirkpatrick said, adding that there are roughly 13,000 hotel rooms within one mile of Mercedes Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena, and the Georgia World Congress Center, making events easy to access in addition to several transit stations in the area as well. Kirkpatrick would go on to share that the economic impact that Atlanta has been able to generate over the years has been invaluable and the estimated numbers of what the World Cup may bring exemplifies that.

“The U.S. will see somewhere around five billion dollars coming in and what we’re thinking about and what our economist has been looking at is for the eight matches in Atlanta, it is at a minimum, but we think this number is going up, 500 to 550 million dollars to the Metro Atlanta, Georgia economy,” Kirkpatrick told Shapiro and Golden of the expected boost the World Cup alone may bring. Click link above to hear the conversation in its entirety