Peach Bowl Inc. donates $8 million to Hall of Fame

Indoor playing field will be refurbished at Atlanta facility.

ing the Fame its Peach support College force to Atlanta, Bowl behind of Football the Inc., will downtown bringing expand a Hall driv- of attraction donation. with an $8 million

T he contribution will be made from Peach Bowl reserves and will extend the bowl organization’s spon- sorship of the Hall of Fame for 10 years. It will bring the Peach’s total investment in

the Hall of Fame to $13 million, following a $5 million donation in 2010.

“This is a way for us to do something good for college football, good for the city and good for our brand as well,” said Gary Stokan, president and CEO of Peach Bowl Inc., which runs the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Chick-fil-A Kickoff games and related events. In 2002, Stokan initiated the effort to move the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta from South Bend, Ind. A deal was reached with the National Football Foun- dation in 2009, construc- tion began in early 2013, and the facility opened in August 2014.

Some of the Peach’s $8 million contribution will be used to refurbish the Hall of Fame’s 45-yard-long indoor playing field, which will be called Peach Bowl Field. It will get new turf, an enhanced Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Skill Zone and a goal post-mounted camera to digitally capture fans’ field goals or other football exploits there.

Also, the Hall of Fame will create exhibits related to the Peach Bowl and Chick-fil-A Kickoff games. An annual fan event leading into the season’s opening weekend will be centered around the Hall of Fame and will be called Peach Bowl FootballFest.