ATLANTA, GA – December 19, 2017 – MELT, the Atlanta-based, award-winning sports, entertainment and culinary marketing agency, Chairman/CEO Vince Thompson is set to appear today at 5:30 pm EST on The Paul Finebaum Show on The SEC Network and Sirius XM/ESPN XTRA/Channel 81 to discuss the demand for a college football national championship tickets, should The University of Georgia defeat The Oklahoma Sooners in The Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018. The National Championship game will be played in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday night, January 8 against the winner of The University of Alabama versus Clemson University in the Sugar Bowl on January 1. The pair will also discuss other business impacting college sports including Disney’s recent acquisition of Fox; the Learfield/IMG College merger; the acquisition of ticket and hospitality provider Primesport by NFL On-Location; and other topics.
Thompson was quoted in Sunday’s December 17 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and writer Tim Tucker about the possibility of the ticket price (if UGA is in the game against Clemson) being the most expensive ticket in the history of college football. Thompson predicts the “walk-in” (the price of the least favorable seat in the stadium) would fetch about $2,300 per ticket due to proximity of both schools fan and alumni bases, the fact that since no hotel stays would be involved more of that person’s discretionary income could be focused on buying the ticket instead of money for lodging and meals. Thompson further predicted the price of a UGA vs Alabama ticket would similarly fetch about $2,000 dollars per ticket. The most expensive luxury suite on the market right now for the game itself is listed at $106,000 dollars.
Other sports marketing professionals and experts quoted in the article agreed with Thompson’s assessment, including Jack Slingland of TickPick, Carl Adkins, Executive Director of Atlanta’s Host Committee for The National Championship and Dan Corso, President of The Atlanta Sports Council. Even if fans don’t attend the game in person, the resulting bar, tavern, restaurant and in-home viewing parties will drive major upticks in revenues for all of those entities and major grocery chains such as Kroger.
“It’s an exciting time for the City of Atlanta and our booming college sports scene,” said Thompson. “Our City and State leadership, the corporate leadership, Mr. Arthur Blank’s leadership, William Pate of The Atlanta Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, The College Football of Fame and Chick-Fil-A Bowl and all the other leaders and citizens should be very proud that Atlanta has officially become The “Capital of College Football.”