Tour de force
Arthur Blank talks about bringing arena football back to Gwinnetthttp://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/main.asp?...ArticleID=11812By Will Hammock
Sports Editor
With Saturday's Georgia Force season opener at the Arena at Gwinnett Center just a day away, team owner Arthur Blank sat down in his Flowery Branch office for a question-and-answer session with sports editor Will Hammock. The Home Depot founder, Atlanta Falcons owner and well-known philanthropist talks about a variety of topics, ranging from his teams to his childhood to Gwinnett County's rise in professional sports.
WH: A lot of folks out here want to know, what was your thought process in bringing the Georgia Force back to the Arena at Gwinnett Center? Why Gwinnett?
AB: We love the Arena. When we first bought the team, I attended some games there and the adrenaline was great. Gwinnett County is obviously a booming county, so the question is, 'Why did you move it then?'
We really thought that we would be successful and the last three years we've had the second-highest winning percentage in the AFL, we've won more games other than Dallas, we've been in the playoffs all three years, etc. We thought that the Gwinnett Arena would not be big enough to accommodate these big crowds. We were successful downtown, but not as successful as we thought we could be in the Gwinnett Arena situation. So when we had the opportunity to move back up to Gwinnett, we definitely jumped on it.
It's a great facility, a beautiful facility. Gwinnett County is doing well, the demographics are right to support the team, a lot of our players and staff live up here but even beyond that reason it's a wonderful community and place for us. And we're going to be there for at least 10 years and we wanted to have that commitment in that kind of community.
WH: What kind of atmosphere are you expecting for Saturday's home opener?
AB: It's like football on steroids. An awful lot of scoring - how you manage the clock and scoring is critical because it comes down to the last minute or less than that oftentimes. I expect we'll put a great product on the field again. ... I'm excited about our team, the team that's been put together. I know the facility is going to be grand, the place will be packed. It's going to be exciting for everybody.
WH: We talked earlier about the Gwinnett location. What do you feel makes the area attractive to professional sports teams like the Force, the Gwinnett Gladiators and the soon-to-be Gwinnett Braves?
AB: I was with Sam Olens, who's the commissioner for Cobb County, a couple of nights ago and Sam was telling me they're growing their county since the year 2000 at 1.6 percent a year. He said, 'I don't know how Gwinnett County keeps producing the growth they have.'
There are a lot of wonderful dynamics taking place in Gwinnett County. I think growth fuels opportunity, jobs, people being able to support the Braves here, having us move back, creating an attractive deal for us at the Gwinnett Arena. For me, it's a growth county and it's an exciting place to be. It's the right kind of demographics, people are moving there for the right reasons. It's a good, solid school system, there are a lot of reasons why people really feel comfortable there. And obviously we think we can be successful there.
WH: With the large soccer community in Gwinnett and metro Atlanta, people want to know about a Major League Soccer franchise coming to the area. What are your plans with that?
AB: We're looking at that. We've announced that publicly. The commissioner of MLS has made that clear. We're in the due diligence stage. We've spent time with six counties (we're looking at). We've reduced it to down to a number, which we haven't announced publicly, but Gwinnett is clearly in that mix. We're excited about MLS and the growth of that league, it's absolutely moving in the right direction. A lot of the same demographics that support MLS also are there in Gwinnett County.
WH: With the Falcons, it's obviously been a rough year. I assume you've had rough years in business, too. How do you bounce back? What is your philosophy?
AB: I have a poster in my other office that was given to me by Phil Knight from Nike. It's not produced any more but I was able to get one. ... It says 'There is no finish line' and there's a picture of runner by himself on it. My philosophy of life is that way. There is no finish line.
Last year, 2007, for the Atlanta Falcons, was a season. That's why they call it a football season, they don't call football life. It's a football season, like winter will lead to spring and spring will lead to summer and summer will lead to fall. That season's behind us. That year's behind us. We're working on free agency, we're working on the draft, we're excited about our new general manager, we're excited about our new coach and staff, we're excited about some of the talent we're carrying forward.
The beauty of the NFL is the parity situation, you can go from 4-12 to 12-4, not overnight, but it can happen in a relatively short period of time with free agency and the draft. We're excited about where we are in terms of having some cap room. We're excited about having an owner who's pretty aggressive, who will do anything he has to do to win, which is a good thing for Atlanta, whether you're an AFL follower or an NFL follower. I'm excited about next season. I really am.
WH: What do you do in your free time?
AB: I spend a lot of time with the children. I've got six wonderful children and a great wife. A lot of our time is connected to the foundation work in addition to our two football teams, our guest ranch and some other business ventures, like the PGA SuperStore, which started here in Atlanta and we've got 10 stores throughout the United States now. Those things keep me busy. But I love to work out and I love to run. I still try to take an hour a day for myself. And I love being with my children.
One of my favorite things to do every day is help put the children to bed at night. I get them dressed in the morning while my wife makes them lunch. I get them ready for school, help them get ready for bed at night, snuggle with them. Whatever happens during the day, whether you lose a Force game or a Falcons game, you can go home and put your children to bed and it puts everything else in the right perspective. I view 2007 that way. It's kind of a blip on the screen. It was a tough year for our NFL team, but we've moved past that and into 2008.
WH: Did you ever see yourself owning a professional team when you were younger?
AB: Not really. When we started Home Depot, if you asked either myself or Bernie (Marcus), we would have said the same thing, 'We're going to be very successful.'
But what does that mean? It doesn't mean having the degree of success that HD has had since the period of time when I was there. It's struggled the last six years, but hopefully the new CEO will get that turned around now despite the housing market being what it is. I had tickets to everything, but I never thought we'd be in the financial position to own anything.
I'm the kind of person, I could go and have a suite and watch the Atlanta Falcons or the Georgia Force play or anything else. But I'm the kind of guy, if I'm going to go there, I'm going to complain and be unhappy about the way the team's playing. So I'd rather own the damn thing and try to fix it. Even if I can't, I'll try to make it better. I thought it would be more fun and I thought I could add more value in that way.
I try to be a really good owner. Being a really good owner of a professional sports franchise means you have to have the financial resources to do it and hire the best people. On the non-business side of things, get out of the way and allow them to do what they need to do. That's true with the Force and that's true with the Falcons.
WH: You hear about some pro sports owners who are disjointed from the game, who focus more on the business side. How involved are you during the game? Do you pay attention to the players?
AB: I pay a lot of attention. During the game, I feel like a coach and a player instead of an owner. A lot of these young men I've gotten to know personally on either of our teams. You see what they do physically in the offseason and during the season and emotionally what it takes. I'm very, very impressed with that. When they win, I kind of win with them. When they lose, I feel their pain. When they have injuries, I feel their suffering, the stress they're under.
WH: Where will you watch the Force games, in the front row or from a suite?
AB: Absolutely from the front row. No box. The Force games I always sit right next to where the players sit. I want them to see I'm there with them, not up in the suites somewhere drinking rum and Cokes. Not that there's something wrong with that.
That's just where I feel I need to be. I get the taste of the game. During our Falcons games, I go down to the sidelines usually with five minutes left so I can feel the pace of the game, the stress, the tension. I want our players and coaches to know that the owner is down here with us at the end of the battle.