Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan on Planning the Chick fil-A Kickoff Games: Part 2 "We're Last to Know"

At some point in the next two weeks, the ACC, SEC and Big 12 will announce whether they plan to follow the lead of the Pac-12 and Big Ten and play conference only schedules, or whether they’ll attempt to have some number of non-conference games. At some point, the conferences will also decide whether the season can start on time.

In the meantime, Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan, who is tasked with planning the three Chick fil-A Kickoff Games scheduled to start the season in Atlanta, will sit and wait to see what they decide.

“We’re the proverbial tail on the dog,” Stokan said, “but the tail’s not wagging the dog—we’re not wagging anything here. We’re last to know.”

In part two of his two-part conversation with Blue Devil Country (full audio in the above video), Stokan discussed the challenge of kicking off a season whose start date is still unknown, less than two months out.

“We don’t what the conferences are going to do,” Stokan said. “If they pushed back, would they start with conference games or the non-conference games? We just don’t know. That’s one of things you build contingencies on contingencies. If they go in this direction, we have to do this. So we’re waiting until the end of July. Once we know, we can pull off whatever model we have to pull off.”

If the conferences decide to try non-conference games but delay the start of the season, Stokan has a contingency plan ready.

“We’ve worked with Mercedes Benz Stadium to have flexibility,” he said. “They’re a good partner with us. So we have assurances that we have dates available.”

The games would need to fit with the revamped schedules of the six college teams involved, of course, and also with the stadium’s other tenants—the NFL Falcons and the MLS Atlanta United. That could mean that the Kickoff games will actually end up being mid or late-season games instead.

Once he has dates, Stokan will need to come up with a way to distribute tickets to whatever number of fans are allowed to attend.

“It’s just different contingencies you have to build in,” he said. “Do we have cheerleaders and bands on the field or no? Do we have clear bags or no bags? Do we have a press conference with social distancing or do we do a Zoom press conference?”

Despite the uncertainty, Stokan is optimistic that the season, and his games, will be played, although he’s not as confident that it will all happen as scheduled. He also still sees the appetite to play in the game from all six teams and their respective leagues.

“I think all three conferences, in our conversations with them, they’d like to play the full schedule of 12 games,” he said. “They’re also aware though that they may not be able to do that, due to potential testing issues or wanting some flexibility that if a (conference) game get cancelled, to have an open date to play that game.”

You can listen to the first part of our interview with Stokan here.