Mercedes-Benz Stadium Hosts College Football Final
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Mercedes-Benz Stadium Hosts College Football Final

Ohio State topped Notre Dame, 34-23, in the National Championship.

Though the weather was far from ideal, Mercedes-Benz Stadium was a perfect setting for this year’s college football championship game // Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz Stadium social media
Though the weather was far from ideal, Mercedes-Benz Stadium was a perfect setting for this year’s college football championship game // Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz Stadium social media

It went a lot smoother this time.

When Mercedes-Benz Stadium first hosted the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship Game in January 2018, the facility was barely six months old, unequipped to handle the logistical nightmare that ensued when President Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president since Jimmy Carter in 1981 to attend a game that resulted in a college football national championship. The magnified security presence via the Secret Service protocol resulted in tens of thousands experiencing exorbitant delays – some waited well over two hours and didn’t arrive until after kickoff – while huddling outside in the cold rain as multiple entry gates had been closed.

The throngs of frustrated Georgia and Alabama fans jockeying for position to reach the metal detectors while struggling to access their mobile tickets on their smartphones amid spotty Wi-Fi and cellular service were not shy about voicing their displeasure. And for good measure, during pregame warm-ups, raindrops trickled down from the leaky roof around the 20-yard line near Alabama’s end zone.

But this year, for the 77,660 fans, many of whom paid not hundreds, but thousands, to watch Ohio State prevail over Notre Dame for the 2025 national title, a culmination of the inaugural CFP 12-team tournament, such issues were largely rectified – while millions were watching around the world. When ESPN opened its broadcast by showcasing the exterior of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the outside concourses were barren. By the time the ceremonial coin toss that fittingly featured Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, went down at 7:45 the stadium was fully awash in Ohio State red and Notre Dame green. And it was only fair that fans got to their seats on time with a chance to grab some of the stadium’s exceptionally affordable refreshments, because many paid astronomical prices to get in the building – by mid-afternoon on gameday a single admission ticket soared well over $4,000 with fees.

It certainly helped that there wasn’t the presidential factor (the biggest celebrity on hand was probably LeBron James), but clearly the vastly improved stadium operations proved to be the real difference-maker. Though outside MSB the arctic temps descending on the region made for an unfortunate narrative, the operation inside MSB’s walls hummed along just fine and sparked no negative sidebars for the 2025 edition of the CFP championship game.

“If you were to match a sport and a city together, you will not find a better combination than college football and Atlanta. It just goes hand in hand. We are college football here. It’s part of our culture. It’s part of our DNA, and we do it really well. And in order to do it really well, you have to have a fantastic stadium. And it showed off last night again why we have the top stadium in the world,” remarked Dan Corso, president of the Atlanta Sports Council, during the following morning’s host committee news conference. “Both from just a fan experience and aesthetic wise, it just sets up so well.”

It is no coincidence that Atlanta was the first city to host the College Football Playoff National Championship for a second time. With its walkable downtown serving as a hub of pregame festivities – the Georgia World Congress Center was buzzing with interactive fan activities while Allstate Championship Tailgate took over Georgia International Plaza and The Home Depot Backyard – and close proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta is a strong candidate to host further CFP title games and is, in fact, slated to host next year’s Peach Bowl, which will serve as one of the semifinal games. And even though the bone-chilling cold was not exactly conducive for tailgating and all the other pregame pageantry, the vast majority of fans were hearty Midwesterners very familiar with the frosty conditions.

“Everything that went on here in Atlanta was just spectacular,” exclaimed Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff, during the host committee news conference. “Along with the game, the events that surrounded the game were really spectacular, too. Well attended. Even with the cold, we still had people come to the concerts, to the taste of the championship, to the fan fest, and Playoff Playlist Live! All of those kinds of things really went well.”

The first College Football Playoff championship game to fall on MLK Day and on a presidential inauguration day was an entertaining affair with relatively few penalties, turnovers, and serious injuries. When Notre Dame started off with a clock-chewing opening drive capped by quarterback Riley Leonard waltzing into the endzone untouched for a 7-0 lead, it appeared the Fighting Irish had a chance to be crowned national champs for the first time since 1988 until Ohio State, powered by quarterback Will Howard and running back Quinshon Judkins, reeled off 31 unanswered points to take a seemingly commanding 31-7 lead midway through the third quarter. Though a stubborn Notre Dame squad trimmed the deficit to 31-23 with 4:15 remaining, the Buckeyes pulled away for their first national title in a decade.

Irrespective of the game’s final outcome, the opportunity to play in front of a national audience at one of North America’s most renowned multipurpose stadiums was not lost on the dozens of scholar-athletes who suited up for this year’s big game.

“It [Mercedes-Benz Stadium] is a futuristic place to play. It’s incredible,” remarked Leonard, whose Notre Dame team actually played Georgia Tech at MSB back in October, during a media session earlier in the week.

Added Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, “the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it can’t be compared to.”

Following next year’s Peach Bowl, the CFP championship game will move down south to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., before heading west to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas – where it was actually supposed to be played this year before a scheduling conflict bumped the location to Atlanta — at the conclusion of the 2026 season. Though there is no official future date for college football’s crown jewel event to return to Atlanta, the men’s college basketball Final Four is coming to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the first time in 2031 – more than a decade after Atlanta was originally slated to host the marquee college hoops event.

And, of course, well before the 2031 men’s Final Four, Atlanta will be the epicenter of the sports universe when it serves as the backdrop to this year’s MLB All-Star Game at Truist Park on July 15.

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