NFL owners award 2019 Super Bowl to Atlanta

May 25,2016

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/football/nfl-owners-award-2019-super-bowl-to-atlanta/nrSZT/

The Super Bowl is headed back to Atlanta after a vote Tuesday by NFL owners to play America’s No. 1 sporting event in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in February 2019.

It will be the third Super Bowl played in Atlanta and the first since 2000.

One of four bidders for the 2019 Super Bowl, Atlanta won on the owners’ fourth ballot. Miami and Tampa were eliminated on the second ballot, leaving Atlanta vs. New Orleans for the game. After neither got the required 75 percent of the vote on the third ballot, Atlanta won by a simple majority on the fourth ballot.

Several members of Atlanta’s bid committee said they presented the NFL owners will a “fully funded” bid that estimated the cost of hosting the game at $46 million. Of that total, $10 million will come from a sales-tax exemption on Super Bowl tickets passed by the Georgia Legislature this year, $16 million from a portion of the Atlanta hotel-motel tax designated for major events and $20 million from corporate donations, bid committee members said.

The vote capped a year-long effort by the Falcons and Atlanta’s bid committee to secure the game for the $1.4 billion retractable-roof stadium under construction next to the Georgia Dome.

The bid, titled “Atlanta Transformed,” emphasized the new stadium and its close proximity to other downtown attractions that were not in place when the Super Bowl was last played at the Georgia Dome.