Fewer than 50 days remain until Arizona hosts its first college football national championship under the new playoff system. While most Valley residents will spend the long weekend with family, it’s crunch time for those preparing for events in downtown Phoenix and the stadium in Glendale.
Host officials say the previous four championship games had about a $650 million economic impact. They’re aiming to extend that effect by leveraging the next game to bring new jobs to the Valley.
“We’ve partnered with the Commerce Authority and the Governor’s Office to host up to 50 CEOs from around the country who run targeted companies that we would like to invest here,” said Brad Wright, chairman of the Arizona Organizing Committee.
The idea came from from this year’s Super Bowl organizers, said Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority President and CEO Tom Sadler. And college football officials have told him it’s the first of it’s kind.
“Along the way, we get our chance, and our governor gets a chance, and our business leaders get a chance to tell the Arizona story: that this is a great place to live, work, play (and) get educated,” Sadler said.
The Phoenix Business Journal reported earlier this year that two companies chose not to relocate 3,000 jobs here over concerns about schools and diversity. The organizing committee will host special events for teachers and donate $1 million to education, Wright said.
When to comes to preparing for the game itself, NFL playoff seeding could determine whether the teams squaring off in the college championship game are the first to play on a brand new field installed specifically for the matchup.
The Arizona Cardinals currently have the second best record in the NFC. If that holds, they’d get a bye in the first round of the playoffs. But if the Cardinals were to drop to a lower seed, they’d likely host a playoff game right after the new field is installed.
If that happens, the grounds crew would have minimal time redo the field’s markings.
“The crew, I think, have put a plan in place that would allow us to, for the most part, not even recognize on championship gameday that there was a game played previous to that,” Sadler said.
Arizona is in the middle of a three-year run hosting major professional sporting events. The NCAA Men’s Basketball 2017 Final Four will tip-off in Glendale. And it was recently announced University of Phoenix stadium will also host the Copa America Centenario in June.
