Atlanta, Georgia – Saturday, December 2, 2017. The Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Auburn Tigers, 28-7, in the inaugural 2017 SEC Championship Game at Mercedes Benz Stadium.Photo by Perry McIntyre Jr.Although Mercedes-Benz Stadium has yet to reach the six-month mark in usage, Peach Bowl president and CEO Gary Stokan already can reflect on its good ol’ days.
The $1.6 billion monstrosity was built to house the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC, as well as the Southeastern Conference championship game, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff contests and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Due to delays in construction, Mercedes-Benz opened in late August with a pair of Falcons exhibition games, and the first full houses occurred Labor Day weekend, when Alabama thumped Florida State on Sept. 2 and Tennessee rallied past Georgia Tech in double overtime two nights later.
“We told them that they needed to put cuts in the cement to allow the bands to get down to the field, and since the Falcons and Atlanta United don’t have bands, they neglected to do that,” Stokan said. “We had to take our bands outside the facility, down steps and ramps and back into the facility to get out to the field. For the SEC championship, they had steps cut in, and there were stairs that went right down to the field.
“There was also the issue of the stadium offering free refills. They didn’t realize that when people got a Coke and drank it, when they went back for the refill, they poured their ice out because they wanted new ice. They weren’t ready for all that ice to be produced. Until you go through an actual event, you don’t know what you need to prepare for.”
Mercedes-Benz will be college football’s epicenter in upcoming weeks as the site of the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day between Auburn and Central Florida and the national championship game of the four-team playoff on Jan. 8. The Peach Bowl announced this past week that it has sold out for the 19th time in the last 21 years – a feat topped only by the Rose Bowl – and the national championship game could be accompanied by one of the steepest ticket demands in the sport’s history.