The College Football Hall of Fame Reveals Plans
December 3,2010
From Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Lisa R. Schoolcraft
The College Football Hall of Fame will have a 3-D theater, broadcast facility and event space when it opens in Atlanta in 2013.
Atlanta Hall Management Inc. on Friday released more details about the College Football Hall of Fame, which is expected to be built adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.
As first reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Hall Management and the GWCC Authority are negotiating to put the $50 million, 50,000-square-foot Hall of Fame on the 2.7-acre Green Parking Lot on Marietta Street.
The site is adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park, the convention center, and the Omni CNN Center.
"We're going to deliver a game day experience," said Gary Stokan, president and CEO of Atlanta Hall Management.
The tunnel entrance from Marietta Street will feed guests onto a field. Large-screen TVs will allow for game-day television viewing, he said.
The hall will also have kiosks "where you can call up Archie Griffin and see videos and other information on him," Stokan said. "This is not a museum, but an attraction."
The building, which is meant to be shaped like a football, will also have event space for about 300-seated guests that will overlook Centennial Olympic Park, he said.
The hall will also have a 3-D movie theater.
The hall is expected to open in March 2013, to coincide with Atlanta's hosting the NCAA Final Four tournament, Stokan said. Construction on the project is expected to begin in August.
The building will have a connector to GWCC's Building A "to give them a new front door, so to speak, on Marietta Street," he said.
The hall is expected to open in March 2013, to coincide with Atlanta's hosting the NCAA Final Four tournament, Stokan said. Construction on the project is expected to begin in August.
The building will have a connector to GWCC's Building A "to give them a new front door, so to speak, on Marietta Street," he said.
The hall is expected to have 500,000 attendees annually by its third year, said Steve Robinson, chairman of Atlanta Hall Management. "We think the first year will exceed that, but then attendance will settle down."
Atlanta Hall Management expects to reinvest in the Hall of Fame in the third year of operation to the kiosk. Movies at the 3-D theater will change annually, he said.
Atlanta Hall Management also has an agreement with ESPN, which will provide content and be a media partner of the Hall of Fame, Robinson said.
As part of the agreement with ESPN, a broadcast facility will be part of the building.
Robinson and Stokan pointed out it was a team effort to get the Hall of Fame to Atlanta, including the efforts of Gov. Sonny Perdue.
"As an old [college football] walk on, this may be as close as I get to the College Football Hall of Fame," Perdue joked at the press conference, held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. "But this is a great front door to the investment we have a the Georgia World Congress Center."