Back in June, organizers of the McDonald’s All-American Game announced that the showcase game would be leaving Chicago, and on Wednesday the company announced their new home.
According to organizers, next year’s high school showcase will be held in Atlanta at Phillips Arena, home of the Hawks. The city last hosted the All-American Game in 1992.
The game used to be played at a different site each year, but Chicago has hosted the game since the 2011 edition.
According to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business in June, organizers decided to move the game because the showcase had “gotten sale” after being played in Chicago for so many years.
“We’re going to try to get back to the roots,” McDonald’s Head of Global Alliances John Lewicki told the publication. “We learned a lot on how to run it more efficiently, but it also became a little stale. We need to get that freshness back.”
Poor ticket sales for the 2017 game helped spur the decision, as did bad publicity for the United Center after a brawl took place at the arena during the contest.
