CFP NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: WASHINGTON VS MICHIGAN

January 9, 2024

Bill Hancock

John Whitmire

Chris Massey

Janis Burke

Dan Corso

Lisa Benjamin

Tim Zulawski

NRG Stadium

Host Committee Handoff News Conference

BILL HANCOCK: Good morning, everyone, I'm Bill Hancock. I'm executive director of the College Football Playoff. We appreciate your being here this morning.

What an event we had last night. My goodness, what an atmosphere in the stadium. It was just an awesome night for college football and a fitting conclusion to the 10th year of the CFP. We're already looking forward to building for number 11.

But I want to start off today and just really thank our hosts from Houston, the city. The public service people were just awesome. And we couldn't have asked for more.

And, likewise, the Houston host committee. Thank you to them, everyone involved -- Janis, Chris, they just stepped up and made it a really, really special time for us. We're going to miss them.

We've been working with them for, I don't know, three, four years. And when we first got the bid, Janis promised us the temperature would be 70 degrees. She got it in the morning and she kind of messed up in the afternoon. It's about 50/50 for Janis.

But they're great. And Houston folks, do not take them for granted. They're awesome. They know how to think. They think like their guests do. And I don't know how they pull this off in how often -- maybe it's the mayor; maybe it's somebody else -- but the friendliness of the people here is remarkable.

Houston has a small-town spirit that carries over to this big city. I've never seen anything like it in a big city. You all should be really proud of that.

I want to move on with our program this morning. And we're going to pass the baton off to Atlanta metaphorically. But first of all I'd like to introduce a good guy, Houston mayor, John Whitmire. Mayor.

JOHN WHITMIRE: Good morning. During my public service career, I participated in a lot of events, but I don't think I've ever attended one that was representing a sticker presentation, the passing of a baton from one great city to another.

And it so represents the best in people that Houston has so successfully presented a major event. And things like this just don't happen. It took years of preparation. Some things are worth waiting for. And I could spend all of my allotted time bragging on the Houston team and certainly Mr. Hancock, who was rightfully recognized last night during the ball game.

But to our first responders -- our fire, police, our municipal employees, our EMS -- I could just go on and on. And Bill is absolutely correct. What we're so proud of are our people. The friendliness in this great city, a large city, cannot be found anywhere else.

So to everyone, Janis Burke, Chris, their team that so successfully concluded at the ball game last night -- and let me also tell you that weather was all planned. I just want you to know. We wanted you to experience the Houston experience.

Our timing was off a little. The storm was going to blow in Sunday night, and we would have woken up yesterday morning with these blue skies. But you get to experience the Houston weather. A norther will come through and we'll carry on.

I was at the game last night, and it was a thrill.

Look forward to watching Atlanta with their successful efforts. So, at this time, I would recognize Chris Massey, who is president of Houston 2024 college championship effort.

And, quite frankly, I look forward to seeing all of you and the Atlanta team this time next year, and it will be an exciting time.

Thank you, Houstonians, for your patients and friendliness and once again showing that Houston can successfully host a major event.

As a matter of fact, this is Atlanta's second opportunity to have the championship game. And so now they're kind of our model. And we look forward to the championship game returning to Houston in the near future. Thank you.

Chris.

CHRIS MASSEY: Thank you, Mayor Whitmire, and good morning. As you said, some things are really are worth waiting for. And after well over a year and many years before that of hard work, it's great to see the success and the fruits of our team's labor.

We've had a number of successes this weekend, and we couldn't have done it without our Houston host committee and our staff at the Harris County -- Houston Sports Authority. I want to share a few statistics with you from the event over this past weekend.

We were able to put on the strongest showing ever for a Trophy Trot over 1700 registered participants, most of them, I think all of them much faster than myself.

We had over approximately 100,000 guests welcomed into our community that got to take part in the fanfare and free activities around town, whether it was the Fan Fest at the George R. Brown Convention Center or the free concert series at Shell Energy Stadium.

Proud to say we had over 4,000 area teachers who registered for our Extra Yard for Teachers Summit, another CFP record. Through our Houston Loves Teachers program we were able to positively impact thousands of teachers around our community. We were able to connect with 28 area districts, and we were able to provide classroom resources, professional development, teacher appreciation and classroom renovations across our great community to really focus on teacher retention, recruitment and just giving an extra thank you to those amazing educators in our community.

Additionally, we were able to unveil eight mural programs where we had partnerships with area professional artists mentoring students across our community, leaving lasting works of art they can be proud of and look forward to arriving and seeing on their campuses for many years to come.

As a reminder, we have three more mural projects still to unveil throughout our community. And with the Houston Loves Teachers campaign just getting started this is one and those are a few of the next touch points we have on the horizon as we continue to build the volume, the scale and opportunity that Houston Loves Teachers and that platform has provided us to thank our area educators.

I want to take a moment to thank our Houston host committee board, a special thanks to our chair, June. Without your phenomenal leadership, this wouldn't have been possible.

To my fiancee, Brooke, for getting me the support and guidance I needed and patience through the journey, and through our Harris County -- Houston Sports Authority Board for putting me in a position to lead such an amazing team on a journey that will leave a lasting memory in my mind for many, many years to come.

With that, I want to introduce my boss and our CEO the Harris County -- Houston Sports Authority, Janis Burke.

JANIS BURKE: I feel like I need a step stool here. Look, this was a great week. The influx of visitors, approximately 100,000 of them, greatly benefits our city.

We are projecting an economic impact of approximately $200 million from all the activities conducted throughout the weekend.

This created additional employment opportunities and strengthened the standing of many of our businesses, even small businesses, thus aligning with both our mission and vision of improving the lives of Houstonians through high-level sporting events that we bring to town such as this one.

This weekend's success also comes in large part and a thanks to our volunteers. Hundreds of our fellow Houstonians donated their time to ensure that visitors felt very welcomed and that they had all the information they needed to get to everything we had to offer this weekend.

They are truly the secret sauce that complements our success. Their enthusiasm and professionalism proved once again that it really takes a full team of people to accomplish an event of this magnitude.

To those who helped out, I just want to say thank you very much for your efforts.

I'd be remiss if I didn't take time and a moment to thank Chris Massey, who is the president of our host committee. He's been on our team, and Chris started as an intern many years ago with me, and I'm proud like a mother looking at him. Although we are coworkers, and I don't look at him as a son in that regard, but I've watched him grow and I know that his future is really bright in the sports industry.

And, Chris, thank you. I know you put your heart and soul into it, and we couldn't have done it without you.

And I would also like to thank June Deadrick, our volunteer chair. She loves football. I don't think anybody in this city loves football more than June. June, we'll have you come up for a photo op as soon as we're done here.

Again, our police officers, the city of Houston, we all worked together to make sure that everybody had a great time, but a safe time. And so I really, really appreciate all their efforts.

The next round of bidding for College Football Playoff national championship host cities opens up here soon. We've always stated that we want this to be the first of many opportunities to host the national championship.

And so I want to say a huge thank you to the College Football Playoff and College Football Playoff Foundation staff who worked alongside of us. And thank you for entrusting us with this event. Hopefully it is just the first of many. We hope that you will come back.

We didn't know when we bid for this many years ago that, number one, that my home team would be in the running. And so that was really exciting for me. I grew up in Michigan, and to see that big win was awesome.

We didn't know that we would be the last city to host under this current format. And we certainly didn't know that it would be Bill Hancock's last time hosting as the executive director of College Football Playoffs.

So we wanted to make it special when we heard that. We really put in extra efforts. Bill and his wife, Nicki, have been such great friends, and I'm really going to miss them.

But what a legacy, Bill, you left. And I hope that this time in Houston, this last one for you, was special because it sure was for us.

With that, again, we thank everybody in the community and we look forward to hosting, hopefully, once again in the future. Thank you.

BILL HANCOCK: There's a tradition in college football, when a player makes a good play he gets a helmet sticker. We've embraced that in the College Football Playoff. I want to say that Houston absolutely did a great job. So, we have the cool opportunity to affix the helmet sticker with all the other CFP hosts. So let's see, Janis, I think you just affix -- find a spot for it.

Beautiful. Perfect. Thank you, Janis and Chris, again. Wonderful job.

In over a year the CFP will return to Atlanta. As Mayor Whitmire noted, Atlanta is the first city to have CFP twice. This one will be special. They were terrific hosts for us, and we're already starting to plan for next year's activities. Let's take a look at what's in store for us in Atlanta.

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DAN CORSO: Good morning, I'm Dan Corso with the Atlanta host committee. Off the top, I want to apologize for my voice. I think it's a good indication how great this weekend was and what a good time that was had by all. So thankful to be with you all here today.

Congratulations to the CFP and congratulations to Houston on putting on just an incredible event. This is really the top event in the country, and Houston did a great job in hosting it in their first time being here this morning and seeing the helmet sticker ceremony really takes us back in Atlanta just a few years ago when we held it for the first time in 2018.

And this press conference takes us back to 2017 in Tampa when we were on the clock for that first event in 2018.

We're so thankful to be back here again at this press conference to prepare for 2025 as the first city to repeat as a host for this great event.

2025 is going to be a remarkable event for us in Atlanta, working closely with the CFP. We do not take lightly the value of hosting the event a second time. This event continues to grow and get bigger and bigger, as you've seen this weekend. And our city continues to grow and get bigger and bigger and ready to accommodate events like this.

We've already begun the planning, as Bill mentioned, with Byron and the team here at the CFP. And now that we're on the clock we're looking forward to continuing that planning getting our city ready.

The game date will be January 20th, 2025, which, as you know, is MLK day. An important day in this country and especially an important day in Atlanta. We look forward to building that into our planning.

You can't do an event like this without great city leadership. You saw it here in Houston -- you saw the mayor and his remarks. And we're so thankful to have a mayor and a mayor's office that's so behind these big sporting events in our planning.

They get really engaged and involved. And we're thankful to have a representative from the mayor's office today. I'll hand it over to Lisa Benjamin, the chief operating officer for the city of Atlanta. Lisa.

LISA BENJAMIN: Good morning, and thank you, Dan, and thank you to the CFP and to the city of Houston and to Mayor Whitmire for such a great job last night, a game and a national championship.

On behalf our mayor, Andre Dickens, I want to thank CFP for choosing Atlanta for the second time. The second time around is the best time around.

Atlanta has always been unique in that we have a public/private and nonprofit partnership with our business community that allows us to work on things hand in hand, whether it's reducing crime, affordable housing -- and most importantly, for this event, hosting the CFP for 2025.

We think in all of our events you've seen what our mayor calls is a group project. It is an unprecedented collaboration with our partners in Atlanta. And we have been planning and we are ready.

We are excited to host this event on Martin Luther King holiday because it is historic for our city and it is historic for our mayor.

In fact, Mayor Dickens couldn't be here today because we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of Maynard Jackson, who was the first African American mayor in the city of Atlanta. And it was a historic event because it was the beginning of opportunities and access and inclusivity in Atlanta that makes it a very special place.

We're excited to have the CFP and to have a special event for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which represents all the values and honors the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

On behalf of our mayor, I'd like to thank and invite all of you to be part of the city of Atlanta's 2025 CFP event for the national championship.

We are excited for the sports council, and we thank Dan for his leadership. And we are also excited that we have great partners at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

So please join me in bringing the president of AMB sports and entertainment, Tim Zulawski, up to the stage. Tim.

TIM ZULAWSKI: Good day, everybody. Thank you, Dan and Lisa. On behalf of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Arthur Blank Sports + Entertainment it's a true honor to follow the city of Houston and the Houston local operating committee and the excellent job that they did in hosting the championship.

I'd like to also congratulate the University of Washington, University of Michigan in playing in the national championship game, and a special congratulations to Coach Harbaugh and the Wolverines in winning the match, the game.

To put on world-class events you need great partners. We're fortunate in Atlanta and in Georgia to have just that. I'd like to take a minute to thank Frank Poe from the Georgia World Congress Center; William Pate from the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau; Dan Corso, who you met recently here, from the Atlanta Sports Council; and Lisa Benjamin from the mayor's office, Mayor Andre Dickens; and, of course, Governor Kemp.

These folks are great partners that want to bring the best in life to Atlanta and to Georgia. And the national championship game is just that.

Additionally, to Bill Hancock, Byron Hatch, thank you. You're not only excellent professionals, you're amazing people. We're so proud to have the opportunity to work with you on this journey; and Bill, as you ride off into the sunset, it's our true pleasure to do that with you at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, we like to think ourselves as the epicenter of college football. We have the privilege of hosting six to eight major football games each year. Some are done with our local institutions, Georgia Tech, Georgia, and nearby Clemson. Others are the college kickoff games, AFLAC College Kickoff game, Celebration Bowl, Peach Bowl, SEC Championship.

We have had a great privilege of working with many people that are part of the institution of college football, whether it be Commissioner Sankey, Gary Stokan, John Graham and ESPN, with the Celebration Bowl, in order to put on these games.

We're also the home of the College Football Hall of Fame. And so when we think of the national championship, we don't feel -- no disrespect to Houston -- but we feel that it should be in Atlanta. In fact, when we are going through our discussions prior with Bill, I asked if it could be in Atlanta every year. Unfortunately, we've got to share the wealth.

As we go forward, Mercedes-Benz Stadium views or is operated by a mantra, a mantra of "welcome home." So with that, Bill, Byron, everyone that's involved in the decision of where the national championship game is, thank you for choosing us to be the home of the 2025 national championship and, as mentioned, the two-time home of the national championship.

General Clark -- Rich, as I understand you prefer to be called -- the doors of Mercedes-Benz Stadium are open. Our associates are ready. Our community is ready to welcome you. We look forward to having you, Mr. Hancock, and the entire CFP family at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and in Georgia in 2025. Thank you. Have a great day.

BILL HANCOCK: Thank you, Tim. Over these last 10 years, CFP has created memories in the host cities that will last forever. And they're memories that I will cherish also. We are looking forward to being back in Atlanta.

I want to leave you with the fact that Houston did just a great job and we cannot wait for the future. So thank you so much for being here. You all take care.