Peach Bowl partnership with Hall of Fame grows

ATLANTA — Peach Bowl president Gary Stokan still sees the College Football Hall of Fame as the key to Atlanta’s goal of becoming the “capital of college football,” and his bowl has invested an additional $8 million toward that vision.

On Thursday, the Peach Bowl extended its partnership with the Hall of Fame for 10 years with the new investment. The $8 million follows the bowl’s original $5 million commitment when the hall opened in 2014.

“I said let’s renew but let’s make a statement because we’re the first ones in,” Stokan told The Associated Press.

The Hall of Fame, which moved from South Bend, Ind., is located in downtown Atlanta, adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center and near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Philips Arena, Centennial Olympic Park and other tourist attractions.

Next season the hall will host the annual college football awards show on ESPN for the fourth consecutive year, and this summer it will be home to the Southeastern Conference football media days for the first time.

“We believed things would start to come to Atlanta around college football because we built this facility,” Stokan said. “The vision has come to reality.”

Atlanta hosted two college football kickoff games, the SEC championship game, the Peach Bowl and the national championship game last season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United FC of MLS.

Hall of Fame CEO Dennis Adamovich said the hall also benefits from other big events in Atlanta, including the recent NCAA basketball South Regional at Philips Arena. The Super Bowl will be played in Atlanta next year, and the Final Four is coming in two years.

Adamovich said his facility draws “a steady flow of traffic that continues to build year over year” from the city’s conventions and other events. He wouldn’t reveal attendance figures, saying only that it has grown 4 to 5 percent in each of the first five years.

“We want to see that consistent growth continue to happen,” he said.

He said the Peach Bowl’s latest investment “is just another sign of how much college football means to Atlanta, all of us together trying to make sure we’re the epicenter of all things college football.”