The Georgia High School Association’s football championship games lost money for the first time in 2025, prompting the GHSA to spend $150,000 from its reserves to ensure the 16 participating schools got their usual payouts, which averaged $9,910 this year.
As reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, lower attendance and rising costs for Mercedes-Benz Stadium caused the unprecedented shortfall and sparked a debate among coaches and athletic directors over the merits of using the Atlanta Falcons’ field for the championships.
Paid attendance for the games over three days was 46,132 — down more than 10% from 2024, which set a record, according to On3.
The GHSA moved the championships from Georgia State University’s Center Parc Stadium to the Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2023. In its record-setting attendance year, the state association still distributed significantly less to schools than it had at Parc Stadium, even with lower paid ticket numbers.
According to on3, citing reporting by the Georgia High School Football Daily, Mercedes-Benz received $582,520 of the 2023 event’s $983,820 in revenue. In 2022, Georgia State took in a mere $157,766 of the $663,805 revenue at Center Parc Stadium.
“’This is probably the sentiment of every coach that’s played last few years, and it’s that all of us would rather play at a home venue because we all lose money,” Bowden High School coach Jay Fendley said at the time. “Yeah, it’s exciting, it’s awesome to play in that venue, the kids love it, the fans love it, but when you get back and have to pay your own officials for the year, and the reconditioning you have to do, and buy 10 new helmets and 10 new sets of shoulder pads, all the expenses, you really would like to find a way to make a bigger paycheck when you play for a state championship.”
"It's about providing an experience for our athletes, and Mercedes-Benz is a great facility," GHSA executive director Tim Scott told the Journal-Constitution. "The vast majority won't be able to play in it again."
