Atlanta Tourism and World Cup with William Pate

In this episode of Tharon’s Take, Tharon speaks with William Pate, President of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, about Atlanta’s growing reputation as a global destination for major events, tourism, and business.

Pate shares why Atlanta continues to attract world-class events such as the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, and Final Four, and what makes the city uniquely positioned to host visitors from around the world. From infrastructure and hotel capacity to transportation access and convention space, he explains the logistics that make Atlanta competitive on the global stage.

The conversation also highlights what truly sets Atlanta apart — its people and the culture of hospitality that defines the city.

This episode offers an inside look at how Atlanta is preparing for its next chapter as one of the world’s leading destinations for sports, tourism, and major events.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

William Pate is Atlanta through and through. Decatur Rays, a proud Georgia State alum, and now president of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. For decades, he's helped position this city as a global destination for tourism, conventions, and major events. Listen to what William has to say. He says we're prepared for the World Cup. He's been doing it a long time. He wants people in the city of Atlanta to feel like they're going to be included. He talked a lot about the activities that are going on. I trust William. Tune in. William Pate, man, let me tell you this. We had Dan Corso on the segment before you. I call him the busiest man in Atlanta, but I think you you got some, you know, some years on him as far as serving the Atlanta community, but you definitely got to be up there too, as far as the being the busiest man right now in Atlanta with all the stuff that's going on.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Well, I think we both have a lot to say grace over for sure. You know, Dan's been great about attracting all these fantastic sporting events that we have. Uh on top of that, you know, a lot of what we do is uh working with the conventions, getting large conventions here. And the important thing that both of us do is get visitors to the city, get people into Atlanta. Because when people come to Atlanta, they're staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, they're buying merchandise, they're really supporting a lot of the small business community that supports the hospitality industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Well, William, before we get too into the weeds of your job and your impact on the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia, I want to go backwards a little bit. Tell us about you. Uh, I know you were born uh in Atlanta, Decatur, uh, your high school, um, you know, all the jobs that you've had doing research on you, man. I knew a lot about you, but man, you've done a lot. So tell our listeners and viewers about your sort of your journey, personal and professional.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Uh so I uh did grow up in Decatur, born in Decatur. Um, went to Shamrock High School, which is no longer a high school. That's how you know you're getting older when the place you went to high school. What's the new name of it now?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Uh Duadills Middle Street. There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Uh went to Georgia State, have both my degrees uh from Georgia State, had a fantastic experience there. First person in my family to go to college. So uh Georgia State was really, you know, kind of life-changing for me. It just, you know, it really gave me an opportunity to get where I am today. Uh fantastic professors, just a fantastic experience. Coming out of college, I started out in nonprofit uh and uh with a degree in uh communications. Uh so I was in public relations, uh, started out in nonprofit, got a great break uh when MCI hired me uh to run advertising and PR and other marketing functions for their business division. Um it was my first really foray into the corporate world, and uh it was just fantastic. We were in the middle of the long-distance wars with ATT, uh, just a lot of creativity. I learned so much about public companies. Uh, we had a fantastic run there. Uh MCI ended up getting bought. I went to Bell South, uh, was chief marketing officer there for 12 years. Uh, another great experience. Uh, you know, really getting back into the Atlanta community. Bell South was certainly a corporation that invested uh in the city. Uh, and then uh Bell South got bought. And um, and then I uh was president of a uh private company for a couple of years, a sports marketing firm. Uh, and then I ended up here at the uh ACVB uh right during the uh financial crisis.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

So tell us about the ACVB. What do you all do? I know a lot about it because I know you guys are at the intersection of anything with tourism and development, but tell our listeners and viewers uh about your organization.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So uh the Atlanta Convention Visitors Bureau, our job is to get more people here tomorrow than were here yesterday. It's all about volume. And we do that a couple of different ways. One is we're a very big convention city. We're the number four convention city in the country. So we do a lot of convention business. We also do a lot of what we call transient travel. So a businessman comes down from New York, uh, visits his clients for two or three days, takes them out to nice dinners, uh, stays at our hotels, and then he goes back home. Uh, and then of course we have uh leisure tourism, which is a little interesting in Atlanta because so many people aren't from here. So your college roommate comes to visit you. Well, they stay at your house. Uh, but you do take them out to restaurants, you'll take them to a lot of the attractions and things around town. So we still get uh a lot of economic impact out of leisure, but a lot of our leisure activity happens, you know, kind of from uh Memorial Day to Labor Day. Uh and so most of the focus is on convention business because we know when we get a big convention in town that say has 60,000 people, uh, it's gonna fill up the entire city, starting with downtown, because everybody wants to be close to the convention center. That pushes some of that business travel out to Buckhead. So they're paying higher rate, going to all the nice restaurants in Buckhead, taking their customers out. And then folks who want to have an economy stay will stay out on the perimeter and get a better rate and come, you know, drive downtown, uh taxi, Uber, whatever. Uh, and and so that's kind of how the city works. So even though we're mostly focused on downtown, midtown, and Buckhead, the the fact is the impact that we create is metro-wide.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

How do you coordinate with the mayor, the governor, uh, Metro Chamber, Georgia Chamber, Georgia Economic Development with Pat Wilson, the governor, the mayor, uh Katie Kirkpatrick, Chris Clark. How does your organization play a role in attracting more tourism, but also new businesses? And one of the things that you and I were talking about, your goal is to try to retain some of these folks. You want them to not just come back for tourism, but can they make a home and you know, workplace here?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

So I would say we support all of them. Um, tourism is one of the largest economic drivers in the city, as it is in almost every city in the world. And the reason why that is, is because when you travel, there are so many transactions that you're involved in, from coming to the airport and you buy some food, you know, your airline ticket, you get in a uh some sort of transportation vehicle to get you to downtown, you're staying in a hotel. I mean, there all those transactions, tips and things like that, are all the things that add up to the economic impact. So in Atlanta, our business is a$20 billion business. So it has a huge impact uh on the city. Um, and so then when you talk about like working with the governor and the mayor uh in terms of business development, one of the opportunities we try to take advantage of when we have things like Super Bowls, uh Final Fours, World Cup coming up is a lot of times we're gonna get people to the city who may have never been here before. And those people and a lot of times those are gonna be corporate CEOs or business CEOs that uh, you know, we have an opportunity to show the city off.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

William, what's been sort of your secret sauce or sort of a tactic that you've been able to use when you compete with other major cities through the country? Like what is your approach when you go in and you're trying to say, hey, I want you to keep your um conference here or your gathering or your expo or your sporting event or your concerts. But how have you been able to maintain such a record of success by retaining the the people that come here, but also marketing Atlanta as a city that's open for tourism?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Well, it's really uh a combination of a couple things. The first thing is if you think about Atlanta logistically, there's really no other city that can compare. We have the busiest, most efficient airport in the country. You can take Marta and be in the middle of the business district in 20 minutes. We have 13,000 hotel rooms within walking distance of state-of-the-art uh Mercedes-Benz, state-of-the-art state farm arena, fourth largest convention center in the country. So it's very convenient to have a meeting or have your business here because you can get back and forth, you can bring people in. Uh, we have great restaurants. Uh that we, you know, we have all the amenities that people are looking for. And then the other thing that really sets us apart is uh the people. And I mean, that is a real thing. The one thing I constantly hear from conventiers that give me feedback is I can't believe how helpful everybody was. You know, I was, I see it all the time. I was walking down Peace Tree Street, I was trying to find something, obviously I looked lost, somebody stopped me on the street and said, Hey, can I help you? What are you looking for? Let me help you, you know, find it. Uh and that happens time and time and time and time again. And that does not happen in other cities. And people remember that because people remember how they were treated. And we treat people here very well.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

All right. Well, you know where I'm going, FIFA World Cup. Yeah, ma'am. Eight matches. Yep. That's not small.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Are we ready?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

We are definitely ready. Absolutely no doubt about it. And you say, well, how can you say that so confidently? One thing is this is not new to us. We we do major sporting championships all the time. Uh when you think about the NCAA Final Fours that have been here, Super Bowls have been here. So we're used to doing big events. And why is that important? Because most of the people who work on those events have worked probably on all of them in the last 20 years. So they know the people, they know what we need to do, we know how to get ready, uh, which is what always makes governing bodies comfortable when they decide to come to Atlanta. And and everybody does really work together well. And that's why we went when we execute them, we execute them flawlessly. And we make sure people have a great time while they're here, and we make sure they want to come back.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

From a tourism standpoint, particularly with housing, and I want you to drill down on this a little bit. One of the concerns that I'm hearing from a lot of my friends and folks who live here but also visit here a lot is do we have enough hotel inventory that's a confluence with maybe other housing options to basically like take care of all these people housing that's coming. So what's our hotel inventory looking like? You know, you and I, we've talked before about conventions, you know, we're trying to get the DNC convention here. I still believe to this day, actually, we will rob, you know, Prisker cut the check. But do we have enough hotel rooms, William?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Uh we really do. Uh we have about 110,000 hotel rooms in sort of the metro area.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And how many counties is it?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

And uh, well, that's kind of thinking around the perimeter for the perimeter in. Uh the value in that, that's the seventh largest hotel portfolio in the country. So, one, we have a lot of rooms. The second thing, most importantly, is we have a lot of rooms that are a lot of different price points. So if you want a boat boutique hotel, you want a convention hotel, you want a high-end experience, you want an economy experience, you know, whatever you're looking for in your travel, you know, we have that available. So that's very trying. And then on top of that, we do have uh some, you know, Airbnb uh opportunities, uh, not as much as in a lot of cities, because most people, you know, don't live downtown. They live uh, you know, they live in the outskirts but and out in the neighborhoods. But there is some uh also some Airbnb activity uh for people who are interested in that. So uh one of the great things that Atlanta has is flexibility. I mean, you d depending on the kind of experience you want to have, you can almost always find it here.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

William, but how do you balance that? How do you balance having hotel rooms available? That's a big number. I didn't know that. So that makes me feel better that we actually have those rooms in the metro area. But how do you balance that with short-term rentals and Airbnbs? You want folks to be in the hotel. I hear you talk about Buckhead a lot, but I know a lot of folks are gonna stay in the south parts of Atlanta near the airport, balancing it with hotels and short-term rentals, but also making sure that the visitors get what they want, but us as residents don't feel displaced.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

So it's a volume business. We want to get a lot of people. And when a lot of people descend on Atlanta, they're gonna be looking for different options. So if you're you've got somebody, you know, usually younger who wants to stay in an Airbnb, we've got that. If you're a business guy who's gonna be entertaining a lot of clients and you want something, you know, uh more robust, we've got that. If you're somebody who's here for a convention, say, and you're looking for an economy stay, we can do that for you. And we have that throughout the area. And the way, the the beautiful way that the business works is what we call you have compression. So when you have a lot of demand, six, say 60,000 people coming into the city. At one time. Yeah, at one time. So that's just not we're we're not just doing a convention there. So okay, that's 60, if you want to think about it, that's 60,000 hotel rooms. But on top of that, we have transient business travelers that are in town. We have airlines who who have their flight attendants and pilots and people staying in the city. In some cases, uh, the hotels will have some convention business just in their hotel. So it all converges on on top of each other. And and so what that does is it it builds that compression that allows us to spread the economic activity outside of not just downtown, but you know, all the way out to the perimeter, which is you know what we want to do as often as we can.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

So you you feel that the bars, the restaurants, the hotel inventory, the hospitality groups, you you're coordinating with all those folks now to really explain to them. I want to emphasize this because we're gonna get to the Super Bowl in a minute. It's eight matches over what more than 30 days. Yep. Um, we've never seen anything like this because I I was in high school and well, college during the Olympics in 1996. So I graduated from high school in 96, got to Clark Atlanta in 1996. But you were here, not in the royal year now.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

But how does this compare to what we went through in the Olympics and what we're about to go through with FIFA?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

The the most important thing to understand is the Olympics was a couple of weeks compressed, where you had events every single day. And so there, and it was very concentrated, more or less concentrated. We have some had some events outside, but uh it was more or less concentrated. The World Cup is in 11 different cities across the United States. You have in the first round, you have a game, you have two days off. You have a game, you have two days off. We get to the knockout rounds, you get five days off in between games, and then ultimately seven days off as you get to the semifinals. So there's opportunity in that because uh people are gonna be looking for things to do while they're here. And so again, that's an opportunity for you know that restaurant, uh, that attraction uh to get some of those people to come. You were talking about the south side, you know, getting people down to the south side, getting people over to the west side, you know, really all around the metro area. That's how we move the economic impact uh all around the city. And we have 60 plus Michelin restaurants across the city. I mean, they're gonna be in some really, really nice places. We have fantastic hotel, a fantastic hotel portfolio. Uh they're gonna, we have great attractions, family-friendly attractions all across the city, 1,700 cultural institutions across the metro area. So again, there's something for everybody to do here.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

So you got projects out there like South Downtown, uh, David Cummins and John Burksong. You got Centennial Yards, um, you know, we had Andrew Salzman on here from the Hawks, and shout out to Brian McGowan and all they're doing. They just announced this CHOPS is coming to downtown, right? How are you refereeing, William, you know, all these sort of developments, which Marta is essential to them, but how do you make sure that downtown these developments get what they want, not just during World Cup, but also, but how do you, in an equable way, sort of spread it out across the region? That everything, while it's concentrated downtown, how do you guys work with some of your partners to make sure that Cobb, Gwynette, um, you know, Norfolk, uh, Fayette, these areas feel that they're included.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, so let me start by saying just specific to uh Centennial Yard, South Downtown, uh, in the center, and all the activity that's going on downtown. One of the one of the reasons why we were able to move forward in that is because we've got such a robust convention business. And so we're able to show them as they build their business plans, we've got all these conventiers. So we got 15,000 in the convention center, and it's five o'clock and the convention breaks up. They want to come out, they're hungry or they're thirsty, or they just want to hang out with their friends, right? And so to be able to walk across the street and have all these offerings at Centennial Yards, or walk across the bridge and go into South Downtown and have these great offerings, or go over to the center and have these great offerings, uh, they know that we have the volume to help serve their business. So when I first got here, one of the things we did with the restaurants is said, look, you guys gotta need to stay open a little bit later because these conventions are rolling out at five or six o'clock. These guys are hungry. And this is the way to get some incremental business. And so, uh, and so that's way, that's the way we kind of work with the community. Uh, and and a lot of what we talked to people in the World Cup is uh we're gonna have these people downtown. Uh, many of them uh are gonna be from other countries, whether they live here or or literally coming from another country.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

William, one of the things that I appreciate most about you is um you always respond. And I recently reached out to you and I said, hey, who should someone contact at your a uh your bureau if they have uh the ability to advertise their restaurant or their barbershop or their pop-up sure? So so tell our listeners and viewers uh how you guys I think you have a list of referred venue. So talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

I'm really glad you asked about that, and this is really important if you particularly if you have a small business. So uh you may remember uh many months ago, the mayor came out and said, uh, look, we don't want this event to happen to us, we want it to happen with us. And out of that thinking came the creation of Showcase Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

And what the mayor is looking for out of Showcase Atlanta is to ensure that the communities all participate in uh in the event. And this and it's not just World Cup, it's Super Bowl, and it's not just Super Bowls, it's really it's big conventions. You go to showcaseAtlanta.com, you can sign your business up. That's all you gotta do. You sign your business up. And then when uh an exhibitor at a uh convention or uh, you know, somebody at the World Cup that wants to do an event uh and they need transportation, you know, we can present them that transportation list and they can go through and you know, we can't tell them who to pick and we wouldn't tell them who to pick, but we can provide them the names of all the people that are available that want their business. Uh, and then they'll make whatever decisions they make. And so this is a great opportunity to ensure that we will have uh conventions that want to work with minority contractors, they want to make sure they get good minority contractors. So we had been working for a long time with the Atlanta Business League and kind of using their membership group. Leonard, she does a great job. And using their folks as a way to you know present that to conventioners so that they could get tied with the convention business. And then as showcase came about, uh, we were able to bring in the Georgia minority contractors. Uh, we're able to bring in, you know, the business league, and we've also been able to create this opportunity for people just to sign up. So make sure you sign up. Very easy to do, nothing to it. In addition to that, as you get on the website and read, and I'll just do a quick little commercial for them. Uh, there are also some financial incentives that they've created for small businesses to sort of help them ramp up uh for some of these big opportunities. So I'll say that again, showcaseAtlanta.com. And you go there, you get all the information, you can sign up, you're ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

All right, William, you know, we're in Atlanta, man, and we love our cars. Um, and you know, shout out to Marta. Uh they're a client of mine, they do great work. But I want you to talk about how important Marta and all of the different transit options that we have will be important to your success and ability to deliver this world-class experience.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Well, if you think about it, it's uh it connects all of the important uh tourism corridors uh from the airport into downtown, out to midtown, out to Buckhead, sort of all along that spine, and then the west end uh and down on the south end. And so it really touches all of the important centers that tourists want to get to. And particularly in the case of the World Cup, 20% of the people who come are from outside the U.S. And international people expect to travel on rail. That's how they travel in their cities and in their countries, right? And so uh it's real so it's it's really important and vital for us to have a substantial rail system available for them. And so that connectivity is really important.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

No, William, this is the first time we've actually uh had this in depth conversation, man. But just listening to you, I mean, you're a damn good salesman for this. No, I'm being honest with you because the fact that you grew up on On the east side, and you know the Atlanta way, right? I wanna I want to kind of close this out a little bit and I want to get you to look towards the future. Um, but but before I do that, um, let's talk about the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Um, so FIFA World Cup has dominated these conversations lately. Tell us the difference between the two. Um, I know we we're gonna get into 28. Have you already sort of started planning? Oh, absolutely. So take our listeners and viewers through that.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, you had Dan Corso on here earlier, you know, it all starts. Uh the the sports council sort of takes the leadership for for these large sporting events. You know, we got the Super Bowl. By the way, we have the Final Four coming back in 2031. So, you know, we're really good about doing the best we can to stack these things up, you know, as we move ahead. Last Super Bowl we had, uh, we used 104 event venues. So lots of parties, lots of activities, uh, a lot of corp, a lot of corporate entertaining uh and VIPs and people like that that are coming here. Uh, and so it's um great opportunity again to show off everything in the city. And uh, and so and we always love uh the opportunity uh when we get to the host uh host the NFL. It's always a fantastic experience. Arthur Blank built us this iconic stadium that is like a spaceship. I mean, when you go into it, it's just so cool. And uh and that helps us attract these sort of these big events uh because they know we have the people to run it and they know we have these fantastic uh facilities. You know, State Farm, when they did their renovation, that was the second largest renovation they'd had in the NBA. I mean, they really, you know, dollied that place up nice with all kinds of really cool features. So we've uh we've got these great facilities, and of course, you know, the Braves, uh, you know, just up the road here, you know, fantastic ballpark. I mean, uh an intimate, you know, setting for fans. We have a million people that come from outside the city, uh uh from around the southeast uh every year to Atlanta, go to a Brace Game.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

A million?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

That's how many, that's the that's the interest and the draw uh that we have, and also the fact that, you know, we're so we're kind of centrally located across the south. So um, so we have all these fantastic facilities uh and we have all these great people that are involved in in and having these events, and and that's what attracts the city. Uh if you're a resident and you don't have a ticket, but you can still have an experience. You can have a Super Bowl experience, you can have a World Cup experience is you can come down to the fan fest, which is free. So for World Cup, the fan fest is free. It's gonna be in the park and you can go around and have that experience, and you're gonna see all the other people, you know, from other countries and things like that. And so bring the kids down. And so we're gonna have a very uh robust uh fan fest uh at the park. We do similar things for Super Bowls and Final Fours and things like that, where we can get residents who don't have a ticket can still come in and you know be a part of it. There'll always be some people signing autographs and stuff, and and so you get to see some of the celebrities and things like that. And so it's really a great experience, especially for kids. And you know, we hope people take advantage of that as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

So when we get this right with the FIFA World Cup, how is it going to, in a permanent way, shape our perception worldwide when it comes to tourism in Atlanta?

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Well, I think it's a couple of different things. One is obviously there has been a lot of activity, particularly development, leading up to the World Cup. So if you think about the World Cup, it's been this great catalyst, much like the Olympics was. Right. And we had all that stuff that built out. And so in the case of the World Cup, uh, you know, Seth Downtown, Centennial Yards, uh, the center, uh, you know, all the all the other infrastructure improvements and things that we've done in downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead, everything kind of getting ready uh for this big event. And those will be legacies that will be left. You know, as we continue to just bring more, more and more people here. Last year, I think we did 52 million people. When you have that kind of volume, uh, they're looking for things to do. And and and those are the things that really feed the attractions. People are gonna hear about stuff in the city, they're gonna want to see, they're gonna come, they're gonna come for the first time. And then, you know, maybe some of those people uh run companies and want to start a business here. So it kind of all builds on each other, uh, as does development. Because what happens is if we get more people here, you have to have more development. If we get a million more people coming in the next few years, we've got to have more hotels to house them, more restaurants to feed them, more things for them to do. And then we build those things. And then when we build those, more people come because they want to go to the aquarium and they want to go to the College Football Hall of Fame and you know, the Center for Civil National.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

And I've heard you recently talk about micromobility too. I mean, you know, we're not gonna be able to park everywhere, but I know you've been very specific about utilizing the belt line.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Atlanta belt line, but also scooters and walkable, you know, being more of a walkable area.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

The belt line, which we haven't touched on, but is such a fantastic addition. And I can't tell you how many visitors mentioned the belt line. They love, they love the opportunity uh to take advantage of the belt line. It's not something you really see in a lot of other cities. Uh the development around the belt line has been, you know, just great. And people can walk and stop in and maybe have a cocktail or something and walk a little bit more. We have great restaurants on the on the belt line. And so, you know, again, that's a great example of really smart people in this city, which we have a lot of, see opportunity and they're able to bring that to fruition. I mean, it just continues to build on each other. And you think about where, you know, where we were in the 80s, you and I are about the same age, uh, maybe a little bit older than you, but you know, we remember the omni when the omni complex was built, right? Yeah, nobody went, nobody went to that side of town, and then it was all industrial.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

It's all industrial.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

And then then they, you know, we build the omni, and and you know, then you got CNN Center, and then Billy Payne sits on a balcony one day and looks at the industrial park and says, this ought to be a park. Right. We're gonna have Centennial Park. And then all the great things that happen. And so, you know, we're we're blessed with such great, with so many people with such great vision. Everybody knows if we continue to grow and evolve the city, everybody's gonna benefit.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

We do rapid fire on therapy. All right, so first first question. Uh, what is one underrated Atlanta neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Well, I mean, I'm gonna tell you, I think all of our neighborhoods are underrated, uh, particularly uh with our visitors, because when people come, their first thought is, you know, I want to, they're they're coming for a convention or a big sporting event and they want to be close to the stadium or they want to be close to the convention center. And what we've come to realize uh as people are traveling more, and some of this kind of came out of people's experience with COVID, people want to have authentic experiences. And so what we have really done is is begin to highlight all of the unique things that are in all of our neighborhoods around downtown. Uh, and they all have kind of unique features uh that people are interested in. And so we try to highlight that as much as possible. The great thing about that is it spreads the economic impact of a visitor, you know, outside of just concentrating it right in the middle of downtown. Um, and it uh creates a more robust experience um, you know, for Atlanta. And I will say also the case with residents, um, because and I've been a resident all these years, uh, you fall into a a trap of you know, kind of going to your usual places and you know, the places that you know and you know the owner of the restaurant, and you know, and and so what I encourage people to do, and what we do ourselves, my wife and I, is we're always on the lookout for something interesting uh that's in a neighborhood or something maybe we haven't been to in a while, uh, so that we can get out. And of course, you know, I'm in the business too, so it helps my job, but I like to know what you know other people are seeing. But uh there are a lot of really unique neighborhoods in this city and and unique experiences, and they're a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

All right. Well, um I put you on the spot on that one, but you did a really good job of answering that question. Uh, but the second rapid fire question is what is the one event Atlanta has not hosted yet that you want to host?

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Uh obviously I think the United States is in the bid uh for the Women's World Cup coming right off of soccer. We have a women's soccer team that's going to be uh uh coming to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And so I think it would be a if we could get that, it would be a wonderful opportunity for the city and for the country. Uh so that's one that you know we definitely would like to like to see.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Which one is tougher? World Cup energy or Super Bowl energy to manage?

SPEAKER_00 31:21

They both are are very similar uh because you've got uh in many cases people who haven't been in the city in a long time, or maybe this is their first experience. Uh they're expecting everything to go well, perfect as they should. Um, and and that and that's what we want to deliver. I mean, what we want to do across our community is execute flawlessly so that everybody's really proud about it, but then we know we're getting ready to move on, you know, move on to the next one. So uh there's always a lot of energy among this amongst the people that work on those things. And the energy energy is genuine because they want to make sure that that visitor has a great experience.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

All right, last question. Rapid fire. One word to describe Atlanta's energy right now.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Momentum.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Love it. Well, William, listen, man, I want to just thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to come on Theron's Take. Uh, you do so much for this state. Uh, I've I've gotten to know a lot more about you doing this. And only thing I would ask is that once you're done and you come up for a little air after the World Cup, please come back on Therren's Take and uh tell us, you know, what you learned and how we get ready for the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Happy to come back anytime. Appreciate you having me.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Thank you, William.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Okay, pal.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

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