Atlanta committee preps for 2019 Super Bowl

About a dozen representatives of the Atlanta committee planning the 2019 Super Bowl will tour Houston’s NRG Stadium today. They also will tour various venues being used for ancillary events and will meet with Houston organizers and NFL officials.

The Atlanta group will be joined by similar delegations from Minneapolis, which will host the 2018 Super Bowl, and Miami, host of the 2020 game.

“It’s similar to the trip we made to San Francisco for last year’s Super Bowl,” said Atlanta Sports Council President Dan Corso, who also is president of Atlanta’s 2019 host committee. “We were in the middle of the bid process then, and it was a great experience to watch and learn. It helped us put finishing touches on our bid.”

This time, Corso said, the Atlanta group is in “pure planning mode.”

Atlanta was awarded the 2019 Super Bowl in a vote of NFL owners last May. The game will be played in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, slated to open this summer.

The Metro Atlanta Host Committee delegation in Houston includes Corso, committee executive director Carl Adkins, committee chief operating officer Brett Daniels, Georgia World Congress Center Authority executive director Frank Poe, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau President William Pate, Mercedes-Benz Stadium general manager Scott Jenkins and others.

Their itinerary includes a meeting with organizers of Houston’s 10,000-person Super Bowl volunteer force, a tour of the Super Bowl Live outdoor fan festival downtown, a tour of the NFL Experience attraction and media center in the downtown convention center, a lunch with NFL officials and an afternoon tour of the stadium and surrounding area.

“It’s a good chance for everyone to kind of compare notes,” Jenkins said.