ATLANTA — The road to the SEC championship will be running through Atlanta for another 10 years.
A new deal announced Tuesday moves the big game from the Georgia Dome to the new Mercedes Benz stadium.
At the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta, Falcons owner Arthur Blank called the SEC championship game a legacy event.
“Nineteen years in a row it has been sold out. It gets the highest TV ratings of college championship games across the nation. It produces national championship winners,” Blank said.
“Ten more years to be played at (the) new Mercedes stadium is really special,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
Reed says his tourism goal is 50 million visitors a year and that a packed stadium is a win for hotels, restaurants and tourist spots.
“We're now one of the five most visited cities in the United States of America and tourism means good jobs for a lot of folks,” Reed said.
Officials say the SEC game has had $1 billion impact since 1999.
In the first year of the new deal, the conference will pay the Georgia World Congress Center Authority more than $54,000.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey says the stadium's planned high-tech features are a plus, even if they don't end up using the retractable roof.
“Our coaches usually have a pretty good interest in maintaining consistent conditions. I'm not going to predict what that means, but I could guess,” Sankey said.
The agreement starts in 2017 and lasts until 2026.