The location for the 2025 annual meeting of the Metro Atlanta Chamber played on the theme for this year — the College Football Hall of Fame.
Multiple sports celebrities took the stage, all proclaiming Atlanta as a special place to live.
There was Ryan Klesko, who played with the Atlanta Braves when they won the World Series in 2025. There was Gail Devers, a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist who competed during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. There was Ovie Mughelli, a former player with the Atlanta Falcons. And there was Kevin Willis, an NBA all-star who used to play for the Atlanta Hawks.
“There’s nothing like having homefield advantage,” Devers said of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. “It was unbelievable. Atlanta surpassed everything I thought it would be. That’s why I live here.”
Willis proclaimed that “Atlanta has been truly a blessing for me.”
Mughelli spoke of the need for clean air and how he wants to use sports to advance sustainability. Klesko recounted playing for the Braves when Ted Turner and Jane Fonda were staples at the games.
But the underlying theme of the morning was “Get ready, Atlanta. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is coming.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Atlanta was about to enter the FIFA world stage.
“Sports bring our region together,” the mayor said. “We are all starting to see ourselves as something bigger — a regional community.”
The official part of the annual meeting is to pass the gavel from one Chamber Chair to the next.
Ryan Marshall, the 2025 chair who is the CEO of Pulte Homes, thanked the business organization for giving him a platform to elevate the importance of housing.
“Metro Atlanta was built for builders — people who see opportunities and go for it,” Marshall said. “In metro Atlanta, growth is not just a talking point. We are building a stronger team and economy.”
He then introduced his successor, Rich McKay, CEO of the Atlanta Falcons, who has also been instrumental in leading the AMB Sports and Entertainment Group, which includes Atlanta’s professional soccer team, Atlanta United.
It’s appropriate timing for McKay to chair the Metro Atlanta Chamber in the year that the city will be hosting the World Cup, which happens to be the 30-year anniversary of Atlanta hosting the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. McKay added that Atlanta will host the 2028 Super Bowl and the 2031 Final Four.
“We also hope to get the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” McKay said.
McKay then paid homage to Atlanta visionary sports leaders — Ted Turner, Billy Payne and his boss Arthur Blank — all people who have helped solidify the city’s stature as a magnet for sports.
On Dec. 5, McKay said one billion people will watch the draw for which teams will play in the 2026 World Cup. McKay said that because Atlanta will be getting a semi-final game, “2.5 billion people will watch that match,” putting Atlanta in the global spotlight.
Then McKay invited a special guest to the stage, Brad Guzan, who has been Atlanta United’s goalie since its inaugural season, until recently announcing his retirement.
“When people come to Atlanta, they don’t leave. They stay,” Guzan told the hundreds of people at the breakfast meeting. “I’m an example of that.”
Katie Kirkpatrick, the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s president and CEO, said Atlanta’s role as a sports town was further cemented earlier this week when the National Women’s Soccer League announced that Atlanta will have a team owned by Arthur Blank. That team will start playing in 2028.
Even though Atlanta is the capital city of Georgia, which has been named the best state to do business for 12 years in a row, Kirkpatrick said it is facing challenges. Housing affordability, homelessness and access to transit, to name a few.
She said the region needs a “world-class transit system that connects people across the region.” Also, reimagining Downtown Atlanta is a major focus for the Chamber to help create “a place where people want to linger.”
Kirkpatrick saved the “news” for last. She announced that Richard McPhail, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Home Depot, will chair the Chamber in 2027 and that Kim Greene, president and CEO of Georgia Power, will chair the Chamber in 2028.
Kirkpatrick concluded the annual meeting by saying: “We will write the next great chapter of Atlanta’s story.”
I’d encourage Atlanta’s group to look to Nash and Charlotte for assistance with how to connect people and get them to linger. And I believe one of these three towns could look at having strong cultural assets in addition to events.
In what ways does Stickman Hook Atlanta plan to involve local communities and neighborhoods so the World Cup benefits the entire region rather than just tourism sectors?