No harm and no fowl at Atlanta’s new NFL stadium.

Chick-fil-A has a 71 year-old tradition of closing on Sunday, from University Place here to the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. When the Falcons play their first regular season game in the $1.6 billion-dollar facility – on Sunday, September 17, against the Green Bay Packers – fans will have to go elsewhere to buy a grilled or fried chicken sandwich.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Chick-fil-A would not let the eighth wonder of the world open without having a presence there. After all, the Falcons do play one regular-season home game not on Sunday – Thursday, December 7, against the Saints – and the stadium has a host of other events including professional soccer matches, college football games and a Garth Brooks concert that aren’t scheduled for the Day of Rest.

No estimates are available on how much Chick-fil-A stands to lose by staying closed on those seven NFL Sundays, but you have to admire a company that will stick to its tradition of giving its employees a day off to spend with their families and go to church. Those are the reasons of founder Truett Cathy stated on the company’s official website.

“Having worked seven days a week in restaurants open 24 hours, Truett saw the importance of closing on Sundays so that he and his employees could set aside one day to rest and worship if they choose — a practice we uphold today,” the website reads. Right on, and who cares how many chicken sandwiches, French fries and drinks they won’t sell to the 71,000 fans who can attend football games there.

Is it a good message in these greedy days of big business, or is it a policy that Chick-fil-A customers and current owners will learn to regret? At least one other vendor at Mercedes-Benz will capitalize on the Never-on-Sunday policy, besides Zaxby’s, the official fried chicken of the Falcons, an Atlanta restaurateur named Kevin Gillespie, who is paying the rights to have his own chicken stand.

The former Top Chef contestant claims he makes a product every bit as good as Chick-fil-A, and he calls his the “COS Chicken Sandwich,” as in “Closed on Sunday.” Cluck, cluck.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
None