The Georgia high school football season ended this past weekend with all eight classifications playing in Atlanta at Georgia State’s Center Park Stadium.
I love watching high school football and I enjoy covering it. It’s a true passion of mine, but I can’t stand watching the games being played every year at Center Parc Stadium.
CC: Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank
The Georgia high school football state finals were played at the Georgia Dome from 2008 to 2015 and then moved in 2017 to Mercedes-Benz Stadium after it opened.
Per the AJC in 2019, “the GHSA paid roughly $600,000 last year to stage the eight games over two days at Mercedes-Benz — about twice what it cost to secure the Georgia Dome.”
“The cost of being at that venue was very expensive, and justifiably so,” Georgia High School Association Executive Director Robin Hines said that same year. “It’s a great venue. We just have to decide whether we can afford it or not. The main focus is for us to provide a great venue for our student-athletes to play in, and it’s not going to be better anywhere other than Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but an important aspect, too, is the payout to the schools, especially in revenue-generating sports. We don’t want our schools to lose money playing in a state championship game. We’re taking a look at that with the Mercedes-Benz staff and weighing all options to us.”
The GHSA announced a year later that the state title games were being moved to Center Parc Stadium. They have been played at Georgia State ever since.
There were conflicts during the few years it was at Mercedes-Benz. In 2017, six of the eight games were snowed out and had to be played at local high school venues. Then a year later, the contests were moved to Tuesday and Wednesday because of Atlanta United’s run at winning the Major League Soccer title.
Attendance also seems to be a problem. Center Parc Stadium holds 24,333 people. In 2018 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, 40,453 attended the state’s eight games across a two-day period. According to an article by the AJC this past February, “attendance for the 11 games – eight football and three flag football – was 22,630. The previous attendance low was 24,476 in 2020 when the pandemic was cited for lower-than-usual numbers. The attendance routinely totaled more than 40,000 plus during the GHSA’s run at the Georgia Dome and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.”
Okay, enough factual information; this is an opinion piece.
Watching the games over the last couple of years on TV, it just doesn’t feel the same with them being held at Center Parc Stadium, and that’s no knock on Georgia State, either. It’s just that there are a number of things I think are wrong with it.
For one, the weather plays a factor.
It rained for three straight days, and although it didn’t seem to affect the teams, it seemed miserable for fans. Think of the families and supporters that drove up from South Georgia to watch their teams play and they have to do so in cold, rainy weather.
That sucks.
I attended Oconee County’s game against Pierce County for the Class 3A state title game in 2020. I also sat in 40-degree weather with rain falling the entire game and it wasn’t an enjoyable experience.
Plus, the fact that my Warriors lost made it even worse.
Growing up, I enjoyed watching high school teams get to play in nice stadiums like the Georgia Dome. I remember when the format was the semifinals were played in Atlanta and then the state-championship games were played in one of the team’s home venues.
Now we have to watch teams play in a cold, (sometimes) rainy environment, in a stadium where I once watched Randy Johnson pitch a perfect game against the Braves. These coaches and players made it this far, so I think they deserve to play in the state’s finest venue for the sport, which obviously is Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That’s the best option.
I just wish Arthur Blank and the GHSA could reach some sort of agreement on a reasonable price. Personally, I think the price to play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is way too high considering how much money it makes on an annual basis. Giving the GHSA a break on cost also would be a great way to show support for Georgia’s high school athletes and coaches.
And again, even though Center Parc Stadium is a nice venue and almost a third of the total cost of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, I still think it would be a better experience for coaches, players and fans alike to play at the home of the Falcons. It’s something everyone involved would remember for the rest of their lives.