Exclusive: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl breaks economic impact as College Football Playoff Semifinal

May 24,2017

Source: Phil W. Hudson, Atlanta Business Chronicle

The ninth-oldest bowl game in the country's first run as a College Football Playoff Semifinal generated a record economic impact to the Atlanta economy of more than $61.96 million, up from $41.8 million last year.

Atlanta-based Peach Bowl Inc., operator of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, reported the game between No. 1 ranked Alabama and No. 4 ranked Washington also provided $4.7 million in direct state and local tax revenue collected within metro Atlanta.

When added to the $29.27 million delivered by the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game (Georgia vs. North Carolina) to open last season, the two college football games hosted by Peach Bowl Inc. in 2016 combined to drive a total economic impact of $91.2 million including $7.4 million in direct tax revenue.

In total, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl combined to draw 151,401 fans to Atlanta. In terms of visitors to the city, the two games represent the third and fourth-largest convention events for Atlanta in 2016. More than 23.3 million additional fans watched the games on television.

Peach Bowl Chairman Percy Vaughn said his organizations goal was to maximize the impact of the Semifinal to take full advantage of the opportunity to benefit its home community.

“This is the ultimate example of how powerful major college football games can be to the economic health of our city,” he said in a statement. “These games are some of the largest ‘conventions’ we have on an annual basis.”

Since 1999, college football games hosted by Peach Bowl Inc. have delivered $933.4 million in total economic impact and $51.3 million in combined direct state and local tax revenue generated within the metro area.

Peach Bowl CEO and President Gary Stokan said there is no doubt college football is a powerful and dependable economic engine in Atlanta.

“We take a lot of pride in providing this financial infusion each year, through our economic impact and charitable giving, to support the community we’ve called home since 1968,” he added.

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