As I'm sure you know, the college football National Championship Game is being played tonight in Atlanta. The game is at the Falcons' new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a mere 3 1/2 miles from my house.
I realize that many people won't read this post until after the game is already over, so I won't make any predictions or place any bets (but Go Dogs!). Instead, I want to talk about the impending traffic and transit implosion about to occur downtown.
Just like when Atlanta hosted the Super Bowl a couple years ago, we're under a winter weather advisory, and freezing rain is already glazing over the streets. Atlanta public schools are out for the day due to the weather, and there have already been major accidents that have shut down parts of Interstate 75 both north and south of the City.
As if that weren't enough, The Orange One has announced his intention to attend the game, so some of those remaining roads still open despite the weather will be shut down for the police motorcade to escort The Cheeto to the stadium.
And of course, any visit by The Stable Genius will bring out protesters (good for them!), so on top of the NCAA game and their teams, their fans, and the media, and on top of the winter weather advisory, and on top of the police motorcade, we'll have protesters marching on the streets, tying up traffic and making things even worse.
But wait! There's more! The halftime entertainment will not be in the stadium itself, but will be held as a free concert in nearby Centennial Park featuring rapper and hip-hop artist extraordinaire Kendrick Lamar. So on top of everything itemized above, we can add a free hip-hop show in arguably the Hip-Hop Capital of America. I imagine more than a few people will show up just for that.
By the way, I think the real reason they're holding Kendrick's half-time show outside of the stadium is because the organizers know better than giving him the chance to address The Donald face-to-face (even if from the distance of the stage to the Presidential viewing box). That, and you can't expect Trump to sit in the audience watching something like this:
The Orange One would find it all so confusing, Mike Pence's mind would literally explode, and Jeff Sessions would send his lawyers to find out how this could somehow be banned. Then Melania would start dancing, causing Donald's little hands to tremble with jealousy, and nothing good could come out of that situation. Better to hold the concert outdoors and a half mile from the Stadium so the promoters can say "No old white people were harmed in the making of this performance."
Given everything happening all at once downtown, and all under the worse of weather conditions, downtown traffic may not ever recover. Oh, and this just in - a few minutes ago, I heard on NPR that with thousands of tourists already downtown for the Big Game and the Big Concert, MARTA just decided to cancel streetcar service for the rest of the day because why not? Actually, their cited reason was weather conditions, but isn't it a better idea to get cars off the street than to do away with what little mass transit the City actually has?
But before I forgot the most important part of all, good luck to the Georgia Bulldogs and Beat 'Bama!
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