College Football Playoff events set some records in Atlanta

Ancillary events surrounding college football’s national championship game earlier this month drew 125,000 people to downtown Atlanta, organizers said today.

They said the four-year-old College Football Playoff’s previous attendance records were broken for several of the events: Playoff Fan Central, a three-day, 300,000-square foot interactive fan festival in the Georgia World Congress Center; Media Day, held in Philips Arena two days before the game; and the Extra Yard 5K race, held one day before the game.

In addition, the game itself – Alabama’s overtime victory over Georgia on Jan. 8 – drew 77,430 fans, a record for a college football game in Atlanta.

“I speak for the entire Atlanta Football Host Committee in saying that it was a tremendous honor to host the College Football Playoff National Championship,” Carl Adkins, the committee’s executive director, said in a news release, “and we look forward to what the future brings for Atlanta as a destination for major sporting events.”

About the Author

Tim Tucker

Tim Tucker, a long-time AJC sports reporter, often writes about the business side of the games. He also had stints as the AJC's Braves beat writer, UGA beat writer, sports notes columnist and executive sports editor. He was deputy managing editor of America's first all-sports newspaper, The National Sports Daily.