CFP National Championship:
Washington vs Michigan
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Houston, Texas, USA
NRG Stadium
Bill Hancock
John Whitmire
Chris Massey
Janis Burke
Dan Corso
Lisa Benjamin
Tim Zulawski
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.
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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.
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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.
[Video]
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.
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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.
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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.
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