When I Went to the Final Four...

For a longtime college basketball fan, a dream came true. I can remember watching the Final Four with my family when Arkansas was good, way, way back when. Last weekend I was afforded the opportunity to spend Saturday soaking in the sights and sounds of the Final Four in Atlanta.

After riding MARTA into town -- quite an experience when Atlanta hosts major events -- a couple friends and I walked around the Centennial Park where there was a stage featuring Zac Brown Band, Ludacris and others throughout the weekend. It did not take long to grow wary of the general public, who was there for the free concerts. I've seen concerts but never had I been to a Final Four. There was different end goal on my mind, and I was ready to get into the Georgia Dome as quickly as possible.

The most reasonably priced souvenir,
a mile away from the Georgia Dome 

We hung around the CNN Center before I got a call and left my group to meet up with my ticket holders, family friend Chris Peacock and his son. I walked up and down one of the 17 different Peachtree Streets of Atlanta before finding my way onto the roof of Max's Lager House. There I met a couple of different people who made the confusion of navigating Atlanta well worth the adventure.

First was Kevin Blackistone, former sports columnist at the Dallas Morning Star, journalism professor at the University of Maryland and panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. He's a star in the sports journalism world so I was immediately at a loss for words. Without hesitation and being that sports is his job, he asked me, "What are you doing down here? Who do you pull for?" (the sports' world pleasantry equivalent of "Hi. How are you?)

Answering with "I am a fan of basketball like everyone here, and my team is the Arkansas Razorbacks." He quickly responded with more knowledge of the 1994 National Championship run and 1995 National Championship game than I ever knew. Granted, it was his job to cover these teams back in the day, but how he could know so much about those squads to this day was astonishing. And to know that he could have that conversation with fans of other teams with ease is shocking. I know this because I saw him talk Elon basketball with guys one table over who recognized Blackistone from his ESPN appearances.

Also at the table was David Jackson, who writes for USA Today and has a blog, The Oval, where he follows President Barrack Obama and the happenings at the White House. He has covered the last five presidential elections and could out duel you in a game of "Name Dropping." I promise. Jackson, also a Northwestern graduate, went to the game with us .While there, I was able to have some lengthy discussions about writing and the journalism business with a veteran high up in the industry.

None of this even involved what I was anticipating most, the basketball games.

The benefit of going on Saturday of the Final Four is that you get to see both semifinal games. Of course I spent a fair amount of the games using binoculars looking for different sports writers, columnists, broadcasters and analysts. Nerd alert.

We got lucky. Both games came down to the final minutes, and on Monday as I watched the game I could claim to have seen both teams live (one of those things only I care about). This is where I could transition into how annoying Syracuse fans are, but I will stay away from that topic until the masses call for it. There's also a good story about my run-in with the Georgia Dome's Director of Concessions about a cup if you ever need a good laugh.

We could get into the details of the game but a quarter of the country watched them, and there were no broken legs. Instead, I will take a second to post some pictures and send out an enormous thank you to Chris and his son for letting me tag along. I got to see meet some people (coaches, writers, analysts)  and see some things I had only dreamed about since I can remember watching basketball.

Inside the CNN Center

CBS Sports setup outside at Centennial Park

Chris and his son

Postgame -- I had a hard time leaving.

I watched the championship game  with my official cup,
which might have come at the expense of someone's job. 

Businessman Blank and Atlanta's Deal A Win-Win

Arthur Blank is a businessman. His background that makes the Atlanta stadium a good thing.

The stadium deal caused a massive uproar around the city on radio and television airwaves and newspaper columns because it was originally proposed as a "publicly-funded" project. But the deal states he will pay $800 million of the $1 billion price tag out of his own pocket (Just imagine making that monetary promise to anyone or anything. $800 million...).

The other $200 million is coming from the state's hotel-motel tax, and estimates from Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed show that up to 85% of that revenue comes from outside of Georgia. And up to $150 million of that $200 million the city has promised will come back to the Atlanta economy when the Falcons host a Super Bowl, which has been promised by the NFL if they built a new stadium.

Blank owns this little company known as Home Depot which will presumably serve as the primary funding party. (Does this mean he can get discount prices on the building materials for the stadium, ths saving Atlanta money?) Blank's businessman past will make sure that the building is done right; being that he is funding 80% of it, I am sure it will be done at a much lower cost than if the state's taxes were footing the bill.

He is a businessman who also understands that building it now, not later, is important. Now is when the Falcons are experiencing unprecedented success as a franchise, with three consecutive playoff berths and coming up 10 yards short of this year's Super Bowl.

The often-accused-of-being-lazy Atlanta sports fan has come out to watch his or her Falcons as of late. And for outsiders who don't believe it, check ticket prices online and try to get one for reasonably close to face value. Sans Bobby Petrino-post-Michael-Vick-dog-fighting-days, Falcons fans have routinely filled up the Georgia Dome as well as any NFL fans, even before their present-day success (with the exception of Green Bay whose fanbase is absurd). Because of the city's newfound love for the Falcons—and its history of not always being so faithful—Blank knew he must get the deal done while morale is as high as its ever been.

In addition to the money he is putting towards the stadium, Blank has promised $15 million to the development of the surrounding areas. For those of you unfamiliar with Atlanta, you don't want to be caught around Georgia Dome too late at night, which is the case with many stadiums across the United States. Along with the neighborhood development, jobs will be created during the construction.

Blank is showing Atlanta that he cares, not only his football team but for its home city.

Plenty of jokes have been made, myself included, about how impatient the city of Atlanta and its football organization was towards getting a new stadium. Nostalgia becomes a large part of the negativity towards the deal because the Georgia Dome serves as more than just an NFL stadium to this state (hosting state playoff games, the 2007 and 2013 Final Four, the SEC basketball and football championships and other various college football games).

But now is the time to move past that because that stadium is going up. If you don't like it then don't use a hotel in Atlanta the next few years and don't go to a game at the new place when it is finished. I'll go ahead and thank you if you don't go so I will have a ticket at lower cost.

The stadium is a good thing for what it will bring to the city. You have an owner who is investing in Atlanta because he wants to win in and for Atlanta. Few fans are so lucky.