In the second part of our interview with Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan, we discuss how the kickoff games could be rescheduled if the start of the season is pushed back
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00:00And if they push back, does what does that mean for your game if it starts in October?
00:05Can you still are there contingency dates or or are you at square one if they can't play in September?
00:10We've worked with Mercedes-Benz Stadium to have flexibility.
00:15They're a good partner with us, and so we have assurances that we have dates available.
00:21So, you know, the Falcons would have their season, but they play on the road half the time and their games are on Sunday.
00:30We would play on Saturday, so we wouldn't have any conflict there.
00:34And then the MLS United team, obviously, we'd work with their schedule as well so that we could we could play these games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
00:45And so in that scenario, is it possible they wouldn't be to open the season, that they'd be scattered out at some point over the next couple of months after the season starts?
00:54Yeah, we don't know what the conferences are going to do.
00:56Do they want to start?
00:58You know, if they pushed back, would they start with conference games or still start with non-conference games?
01:05We just we just don't know.
01:07That's one of the things that, you know, you build a contingency upon a contingency.
01:12So if they go in this direction, we have to do this.
01:16We're the proverbial tail on the dog, but we're not wagging the tail, not wagging the dog here.
01:25We're the last to know.
01:27So we're just waiting until the end of July.
01:30And once we know, then we can pull off whatever model we need to pull off.
01:35And then obviously, you've got the bowl game at the end of the season.
01:38Have you even started worrying about that or do you have to take care of this first before you can even look at that?
01:43Oh, yeah, we've run in parallel.
01:44We've we've done the budget for the bowl game.
01:47And, you know, it has to be redone again because we'll learn a lot.
01:53That's the good thing is we're learning, you know, how to put on this game within Mercedes-Benz Stadium with COVID-19,
02:03which I'm sure the bowl game is going to have the same impact.
02:06So we'll be able to pull off the shelf the plan and just implement it for the bowl game on January 1st.
02:15And if the games are played on schedule, UNC would be the third of the three games in that eight day span.
02:23Are there more? I assume that there's got to be a lot of cleaning and sterilization in between the games.
02:29Is that is that where the tight schedule adds even more problems?
02:34I don't think that's a problem because, you know, Mercedes-Benz will have that down to a science, obviously, cleaning it.
02:42It's just, you know, you've got different contingencies you have to build in.
02:46Do we do we have cheerleaders and fans on the field?
02:51No. Do we have clear bags or no bags?
02:56We have to make that decision.
02:58Do we do a press conference with social distancing or do we do a Zoom press conference?
03:06You know, those are just some of the little things that we have to to deal with.
03:12And do you have a sense from either the six teams involved or the conferences, is the appetite still there?
03:17Do they want to make this work or are there other concerns with them?
03:21I think all three conferences and our conversation with them, they'd like to play the full schedule of 12 games.
03:27They're also aware, though, that, you know, they may not be able to do that due to potential testing issues or, you know,
03:38wanting some flexibility to if a game gets canceled, to be able to have an open date to play that game.