ATLANTA — Tens of thousands of fans flocked to Atlanta for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Friday, and with every seat filled, the Georgia economy is getting a major boost.
Experts tell Channel 2’s Michael Doudna they expect this game to have an even larger impact than the last few years because both teams are coming from across the country.
[PHOTOS: No. 1 Indiana dominates Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta]
With folks traveling from farther away, it means more visitors and more dollars for Georgia.
“We’ve been all over downtown, had a blast,” Eric Stolberg said.
According to a 2025 report from the World Congress Center, folks in town for big games spent nearly $600 per day.
“I think the setup is the perfect storm in the good way for Atlanta, right,” said Georgia State University professor Kyle Townsend.
But he says attracting these events is no accident.
“We have the world’s busiest airport, so folks can get there, we’ve got the bandwidth for that, we’ve got plenty of hotel vacancies across the city,” Townsend said.
A multi-billion-dollar plan for Centennial Yards to transform parking lots into prime real estate is one of numerous developments that are part of a plan to make Atlanta an even more attractive host.
“If you haven’t been downtown lately, trust me, you won’t recognize it when you come down and take a look,” Centennial Yards President Brian McGowan said.
The end goal is to make a place that’s easy to enjoy, so people keep coming back year after year.
If their team plays in Atlanta two years from now, we want their knee-jerk response to be like, ‘Heck yeah, I can’t wait to go back to Atlanta,’" Townsend said.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
