Atlanta lands 2019 Super Bowl

For the third time, the biggest single event in the National Football League, and probably in all of American sports, will be coming to Georgia. It was officially announced this week, as first reported in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, that Atlanta has beaten out Tampa and Miami to host the 2019 Super Bowl, the next one not already committed to a venue. It will be played in the not-yet-finished Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the future home of the Falcons when they vacate the aging (at least by current Atlanta pro sports facilities standards) Georgia Dome.

The predicted $400 million economic impact is good news under any circumstances. As Georgia taxpayers had no say in subsidizing a hefty chunk of the $1.4 billion new playpen for a private business in pro sports’ richest conglomerate, the fact that some big money will be flowing back is fitting. It will also be fitting, as not all that cost was limited to taxpayers in Atlanta, if some of the reverberations of that impact are felt beyond the metro area.

One of the most successful selling points, apparently, was an “Atlanta Transformed” campaign that focused on the infrastructural and other changes in the downtown area since the last Super Bowl at the Georgia Dome in 2000. Falcons owner Arthur Blank alluded to that approach in a statement after the announcement of Atlanta’s successful bid: “Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be an outstanding venue for the game, and with all of the attractions and hotel rooms within a mile of the stadium this is going to be the most walkable Super Bowl ever.”

(If you have to ask what a hotel room in “walkable” distance from the stadium will cost come Super Bowl 2019, you probably can’t afford it.)

All such wry observations aside, the successful Super Bowl bid is a major coup. It would be nice if, over the next season or two, the Falcons could start to resemble actual contenders for home field advantage.

Travel plans

So … when all those people come to Georgia for the Big Game three years hence, will getting into — and, more to the point, out of — the world’s busiest airport be any less onerous an experience than it is now?

To say the Transportation Safety Administration is not the most popular government agency in the country right now is like saying root canal is not our national pastime.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has been tinkering with the idea of private security contractors at Hartsfield-Jackson International. Reed recently fired airport general manager Miguel Southwell, who had sent a letter to the TSA about Atlanta’s long lines and long wait times. Southwell said he was pleased with TSA’s response; Reed obviously was not.

Reed said this week that he’s observing a private airport security operation at San Francisco “to explore that and see if it’s the best decision.”

Worth exploring, yes. As for the best decision, it could be that only if the airport can be assured passenger security won’t be compromised for the sake of profit.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Atlanta lands 2019 Super Bowl."