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Will Mayor Lance Bottoms have same dedication as Mayor Reed when it comes to sports?

It was under Kasim Reed's administration that Atlanta garnered some of the biggest sporting events in the country
ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 26: A general view of Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Arizona Cardinals on August 26, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS -- Kasim Reed helped bolster Atlanta's image as a sports city.

It was under his administration that Atlanta garnered some of the biggest sporting events in the country, such as the Final Four, national championship and Super Bowl LIII, which will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in February of 2019.

The city hosted the 1996 Olympics and several large events long before Reed's tenure. But he ramped it up, and the frequency of sporting events coming to Atlanta increased drastically.

Reed also was in charge as the Atlanta Sports Council worked on bids for even bigger events, such as the FIFA World Cup in 2026. The city hopes to be one of the host cities for the North American joint bid, which includes the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

With Atlanta's Super Bowl less than one year away, there's a new mayor stepping in while the city gets to work on hosting the biggest game in the country.

She's not planning to back off on Reed's progress.

"I think we have to keep the momentum going. I think that’s what we saw at the opening of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium," Lance Bottoms told 11Alive on Monday. She was in attendance for the NFL's Super Bowl handoff to Atlanta. "It really has given us an opportunity to be on the world stage, especially when it comes to sports."

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She specifically mentioned basketball and soccer as events that should continue to showcase its major events in Atlanta. The committee will find out in the summer whether or not it will be part of the joint bid for the World Cup if North America wins the bid. The Final Four will be played in Atlanta in 2020.

Plus there's SunTrust Park which is due for an All-Star Game, a bid the committee is working on.

Many of these events bring hundreds of millions of revenue into the city.

"As we host events every single day in the city of Atlanta, when it comes to the really big event, meaning the Super Bowl, that we are just as capable of stepping up and doing it in the seamless way we do each and every day," Lance Bottoms said.

The new mayor is still getting acclimated to the job and is getting thrown into Super Bowl preparations at the last second.

But as she gets comfortable, it will be interesting to see if she will have the dedication to build off the work Mayor Reed accomplished, raising Atlanta's status as a major sports destination.

It will be a while before we can tell. Reed's impact will be felt for a long time.

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