Does Atlanta need a new stadium? No, but it’s getting one
Frank Poe and Rich McKay, laughing all the way to the construction site. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
On Monday, the man charged with making the Atlanta Falcons’ pitch for a new stadium actually made a case for the current one. “We don’t need a building to play in next Sunday,” team president Rich McKay said. “The Georgia Dome is a good building. We love playing in it. (Falcons coach) Mike Smith has an incredible record in it.”
So why, if the Dome is dandy, was McKay sitting at a dais with Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, briefing the assembled media an hour after the GWCCA board unanimously approved terms that will surely lead to the building of a new stadium?
Because in sports as in life, new and shiny trumps tried and true. The Dome opened in 1992, and it’s a nice place two decades on, but by 2017 it’ll be gone, having been rendered superfluous by its billion dollar baby brother.
Said McKay: “We need a new stadium for the long term, and the natural time to do that is at the end of a lease.”
The Falcons’ lease with the Dome is due to expire around 2017, and that was their pressure point. They didn’t threaten to leave town – “There was not a 1995-type lever,” McKay said, speaking of the days when teams told cities to build a new stadium or else – but they did make it known they had no interest in re-upping this lease. That left the GWCCA, which runs the Dome, with a choice it didn’t know it would have to make: Do we ditch a perfectly sound building to placate our biggest tenant?
To their credit, Poe and associates forged a not-terrible solution. The Falcons stand to foot 70 percent of the $1 billion it will take to erect a new stadium, with public money – roughly $300 million from a hotel-motel tax that affects mostly non-Georgians – making up the difference. There are those who wonder if that $300 million wouldn’t be better used to upgrade infrastructure or further education, but this leads us to the unanswerable question: Why should ballplayers earn millions while schoolteachers make do with thousands?
In pro sports, a new stadium is almost always a shared venture, and far less public money will be earmarked toward the Falcons’ new home than was the case, say, in Indianapolis with the Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium. That’s as it should be: The Falcons are the ones who wanted this, and they should pay the most.
When this new-stadium balloon was first floated, the thought was that the GWCCA might be so cowed by Arthur Blank that it handed the famous owner everything he wanted. Instead the Falcons will settle for one stadium — they first wanted the Dome to remain in place just down the street, a notion laughable on its face – with a retractable roof (as opposed to an open-air facility). And the site itself, which hasn’t officially been determined, figures to be south of the Dome, not north.
The GWCCA didn’t stop the Blank Express, but it slowed the momentum to the point that a compromise could be reached. The Falcons get what they wanted most, which is the right to control nearly everything about their new stadium and bank the money that comes with concession and parking – “We want to touch the customer in every way possible,” McKay said, surely not least in the wallet — but the edifice will remain the property of the state of Georgia.
In these uncertain times, handing $300 million in tax money to fund a stadium that will be run by a team owned by a billionaire isn’t an easy sell, especially when the building that team occupies is presentable enough that it will, come April, stage the big-ticket Final Four. But the Falcons had leverage – they could move to Doraville and leave the Dome vacant on NFL Sundays – and they applied it. The GWCAA fought its corner and will get what amounts to a newer Dome. Maybe everybody won’t win in this, but there shouldn’t be many losers.
And if not … well, nothing is forever. The Falcons will be obliged to stay in their new home for 30 years. Sometime around Year 20, they’ll start angling for something bigger and brighter. That’s the way of our world. Everybody wants the latest iPhone, even if the old one works fine. Every professional team wants a new stadium, even if the existing place still looks pretty darn good.
By Mark Bradley
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
357 comments Add your comment
Coward of Bulldawg County
December 10th, 2012
4:21 pm
Build the stadium in Athens and you can consolidate loser fanbases into one convenient locale…
Scooby
December 10th, 2012
4:22 pm
Lets see, the Super Dome is older than the GA Dome, the Saints have actually won a Super Bowl and the NFL is having the Super Bowl @ the Super Dome for this season.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm….I smell a rat. Who does the folks think we are, Boo Boo the Fool.
That 300mil could be used for something that the city really needs. If Blank wants a stadium, let him foot the bill. Thats what the rest of us have to do. If this thing goes down, we need to vote some people out of office.
Flying High!
December 10th, 2012
4:22 pm
Quote: “To their credit, Poe and associates forged a not-terrible solution. The Falcons stand to foot 70 percent of the $1 billion it will take to erect a new stadium, with public money”
——————–
This is pure spin and as usual with spinning, not the whole truth nor as good as they’re making it out to be.
In reality the Falcon’s organization will probably foot less than half of the new buildings cost out of their pocket. The public is on the hook for $300M, and I have to believe PSL’s, paid for my the fans, will cover at least another $250M, and almost certainly more. That leaves the Falcon’s to cover $450M or so at most (and I’m sure they’ll lower that even more with naming rights and other advertising). In the end the Falcon’s will probably end up paying less than 40% of the bill AND they also get to keep 100% of the revenue while the public and fans get zero. Gee that sounds like a real winner for the community!
I don’t mind public funds being used (to a point), and while I don’t like them I understand PSL’s are here to stay. But they shouldn’t get to use BOTH to minimize the amount of money they’re on the hook for while at the same time keeping ALL the revenue. You want us to foot 50+% of the bill? Provide the public with some of the revenue stream.
Coward of Bulldawg County
December 10th, 2012
4:23 pm
I ain’t riding MARTA…
1lovefalcons20
December 10th, 2012
4:24 pm
what a complete waste..not a bad seat in the Georgia Dome..its state of the art seats 72,000 ..but Atlanta is in decline,bad sidewalks,horribletraffic,high crime ,a feeling of not being safe,low paying jobs,high unemployment,racal division,a look of blight and starting to resemble Detroit,bumpy roads downtown that will ruin the front end of your car,homless folks,poor folks from the slums of the north invading the area thus ruining what little quality of life left,poor education system,water issues,poor subway system that needs to be expanded..AND YOU WANNA BUILD A BILLION DOLLAR STADIUM????????????WHILE NEW ORLEANS UGLY AND VERY SMELLY..CONCRETE CONTRAPTION BUILT IN 1975 GETS A SUPER BOWL ???WOW !!!WHAT A FREAKIN WASTE TO TEAR DOWN A PERFECTLY GOOD BUILDING IN THE GEORGIA DOME
Devil's Advocate
December 10th, 2012
4:27 pm
Like I said before, Atlanta has untapped resources. The Saints want a new stadium in New Orleans but the NFL doesn’t care too much because tourism in NO is going to be the same with or without a new stadium. That’s why they still get Super Bowls on a regular basis.
Atlanta did just fine with the 2 Super Bowls (other than ice that no one could do anything about). Atlanta does fine with the SEC Championship Game, Chick-fil-a Bowl, and now even has not 1 but 2 Kickoff Classic games. Atlanta can host big events no matter what haters say.
Every team wants a new place to play; the NFL just has particular interest in Atlanta because it knows the conditions exist to easily get a new stadium built.
SuperBowlStorm
December 10th, 2012
4:30 pm
” Roger Goodell promised us that Atlanta will never house another Super Bowl in the Georgia Dome”
I didn’t remember that the NFL denied us another Super Bowl because they didn’t like the Dome.
I thought it was because there was a huge winter storm that year that shut down Atlanta traffic and city services — a storm that a more northern cities would (presumably) have been better able to deal with.
huh?
December 10th, 2012
4:31 pm
Stupid idea. Period. Once again we have the rich (this time it’s Blank and Co.) taking advantage of he poor (the fans).
The fans finance the Falcons and should be the deciding factor, not some guy in a suit’s need to have something bigger, newer and shinier than some other guy in a suit has.
southern hope
December 10th, 2012
4:33 pm
Atlanta needs a new stadium. The Georgia Dome is a *very* depressing place to watch a football game (compared to other stadiums around the country). At the same time, more & more people prefer to watch sports on TV….to keep folks in the stadiums, you need a place that is an attraction.
It is what it is.
j
December 10th, 2012
4:34 pm
Please just get us an O-Line
@All I'm Saying Is....
December 10th, 2012
4:38 pm
… I think there is a Marta stop in Doraville, right next to the old GM site.
Atlanta TB Racing
December 10th, 2012
4:41 pm
Horse Racing TO DORAVILLE! Glad Falcons staying in Downtown Atlanta. This paves the way for the completely private investment of a Horse Racing Track at the GM Doraville site. Breeders Cup in Atlanta 2016! Jobs to Georgia! Support the Georgia Horse Racing Coalition and Founders Club Supporting Horse Racing in Atlanta….Follow us on twitter at @atl4horseracing or Facebook. Great for Falcons and Great for Georgia. One Day Closer to Georgia Horse Racing!
Random GaTech guy.
December 10th, 2012
4:42 pm
Another thing Mark, in your article on Louisville to the ACC, a fine piece of anti-ACC propaganda which I’m sure had nothing to do with your Kentucky ties, you said this:
“Mark Blaudschun, formerly of the Boston Globe, wrote last week that the Big Ten considered Georgia Tech and Maryland but Jim Delany preferred the latter. Delany considers — this according to Blaudschun — Atlanta an SEC market.”
Ok, here’s the source for him “writing” that. His blog.
http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=3604
Nowhere in there does he say Delany said that, he said the conference felt that. And THAT, was just his opinion, he never cited a source. The whole article is just an opinion piece. Not once in that article does he state that he spoke to Delany, or anyone else in the B1G.
So you misconstrued a line, in the middle of an opinion piece, on a blog to make the statement that Jim Delany thinks yadda yadda yadda.
You’re stretching that article so much that corn-syrup is coming out.
Take a blog, shape it to fit your narrative, and publish it in a major paper?
What the heck passes for journalism these days… If you hate the ACC and GT so much, just be a man and say it. Furman Bisher is rolling over in his grave.
BTW Louisville has the biggest budget for it’s athletic department than any existing ACC school. They were top 10 in football for most of the year. Multiple SEC schools just failed to pry away their head coach. Joining the ACC is a massive boon to them. But you just keep sitting on all that.
Keep your SEC football. We sleep good at night knowing there are no Jan Kemps around the corner.
Andy
December 10th, 2012
4:42 pm
Think about this for a minute, why would hotels/motels being taxed want this money to go for anything else but projects like this? It would be unfair to those businesses to put the burden of education or infrastructure improvements on them because they are not businesses that stand to gain from it (even though that is certainly worthy spending). The hotel/motel tax is used for projects like this because hotels/motels BENEFIT from having a facility like this in town. These venues drive the visitor business that hotels are in! If the state started pulling that money away from financing projects that helped drive business, the hotels/motels would not be fine with having to charge it!
ATLWmn
December 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
It’s sad to me that nowadays 20 years is considered “the long term”. The Dome is just fine. And if they make an open-air stadium they will lose millions in revenue from Battle of the Bands and other concerts. The Dome works because it is enclosed and can house many different events, that can’t be done in the elements. And the fact is, not enough people care about the Falcons to fill the brand new seats every Sunday. God forbid we actually improve the roads and other infrastructure around Atlanta, no, we need a new multi-billion dollar stadium!
Tommy
December 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
How does having a Marta stop in Doraville help with traffic if the stadium was built on the old GM site? It’s the end of the line. If you come down I-85, marta doesn’t help, if you come from North Fulton or Cobb you would have to go into town to get on and then take the train to the perimeter.
The answer is to have dedicated off-ramps from the highway into the place. Baltimore’s stadiums are like that.
Eventually the Falcons will need a new stadium, but not now. The dome isn’t great, but it has a field, seats, concession stands and bathrooms. Good enough for 10 games a year.
justthinkin'
December 10th, 2012
4:45 pm
The debt on the current dome is still at $100 million dollars and somebody will still owe $53 million dollars on the dome in 2017. This debt is backed by Hotel/Motel taxes, so what happens to this debt when the State of Ga floats another $300 million bond issue to be paid back with Hotel/Motel taxes. Also, it’s pretty much a shame to raze a building that over $50 million is still owed on.
Necromancer
December 10th, 2012
4:46 pm
@Vel Crow
Turner Field will be 20 years old in 2016, what happens if Liberty Media makes a case that they need a new venue MB?
————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Hopefully, Liberty Media will no longer own the Braves by this time….
Dr. Europe
December 10th, 2012
4:46 pm
Compared to other NFL stadiums, the area around the Dome is not safe for the general public, traffic is terrible, and parking is non-existent. Riding Marta? To each its own! I don’t believe the Dome should be replaced, but the area around it should be improved.
UGADawg83
December 10th, 2012
4:48 pm
A few observations:
-Education in Georgia was bad before the state began building stadiums. Money spend on education does not equal a quality product. Better teacher training, and more emphasis on sound academics as opposed to political correctness will improve education in this state.
-Don’t whine about transportation either. We had a chance to work on that and voted down T-SPLOST.
-I am much more interested in winning Super Bowls that hosting them.
-The new stadium will be much further away from access to MARTA.
-PSLs may not fly in Atlanta. This is a college football town and many football fans are already ponying up big bucks for donations to UGA, Ga. Tech, Auburn, Clemson, and other college teams. There are only so many dollars in the market place to spend on sports.
Just some food for everyone’s thought.
Taxi Smith
December 10th, 2012
4:48 pm
An UTTER waste of our money. WASTE!
King
December 10th, 2012
4:49 pm
Tax me to death King George…and don’t bother to ask if it is okay…..hmmm, have we already been there and done that?
bullrusher1
December 10th, 2012
4:50 pm
Thank you Mr. Blank. The entire time I was thinking if the Falcons will pay for it w/ their own money and not the taxpayers, then it’s a good idea. The only concern now is the price of season tickets. We’ve been season-ticket holders since ‘06 and have been through the Falcons at the best and worst. If those prices stay where they are now, I’m perfectly fine with it.
909
December 10th, 2012
4:50 pm
Final Score:
Arthur Blank: $1 Billion
Elementary-Middle-High Schools students in Georgia: ZERO
In other words………..
The 1%: $1 Billion
The 99%: ZERO
Nothing new to see here. Move along sheeple.
BulldogBen
December 10th, 2012
4:55 pm
Completely unnecessary but this is America and $$$ has always trumped just about anything in our Republic.
If you have enough, you get your way. (Unless you’re Mitt Romney).
BulldogBen
December 10th, 2012
4:55 pm
Completely unnecessary but this is America and $$$ has always trumped just about anything in our Republic.
If you have enough, you get your way. (Unless your Mitt Romney).
Flying High!
December 10th, 2012
4:56 pm
DECATUR JOE
December 10th, 2012
2:26 pm
How much is the seat license fee going to be per year?
———————————————
Joe,
PSL’s are a 1-time fee. It’s a fee for you to have the right to then pay for season tickets every year.
As to PSL costs, I’m going to bet they’ll be priced similar to the PSL’s Carolina implemented. Currently upper level is $2-3K per ticket while mid-level & lower level are $3,500-20K per ticket. Oh, I’m sure they’ll offer a few dozen “cheap” PSL’s at $1K in row 60-70 of the upper, upper level – but it won’t be many I’m sure.
To those who have said the ticket prices will go up, I have no doubt they will, and at higher percentages than they have the past 5 or 6 years. Consider you’ve paid a PSL, it’s a lot harder to walk away from higher ticket prices when you have something else invested in them. If you’ll lose the thousands you paid in PSL’s if you don’t renew your tickets you’ll be more inclined to pay more in tickets to avoid losing that money outright. The PSL’s will just be the start of more & more out of pocket expenses for the fans who have stood by these guys thru the thick and thin.
who me?
December 10th, 2012
4:56 pm
can you say “boondoggle”?? Who do they think they’re kidding, there’s nothing wrong with a perfectly good Ga Dome. Who cares if the aesthetics offend, it’s probably paid for or close to it. Let AB take a billion out of his pocket and charge what he wants if the new stadium “needs” to be built.
maddawg
December 10th, 2012
4:59 pm
Enter your comments here
al
December 10th, 2012
5:00 pm
Gee how old is Soldier’s Field in Chicago? Or Balbo in Green Bay? I can go on with older stadiums that are in Pro sports.
Falcons want a re tractable roof. Look into taking off the dome roof and make it a retractable roof. Cheaper than building a new one.
robertussen
December 10th, 2012
5:02 pm
i hope they dont pull some psl crap
MICKEY MOUSE
December 10th, 2012
5:03 pm
YOU SHOULD HAVE TO WIN A SUPER BOWL BEFORE ANY TEAM GETS A NEW STADIUM LEAGUE RULE
PMC
December 10th, 2012
5:05 pm
I beg to differ, the upper corners of the Georgia Dome have HORRIBLE seats.
BOONDOGGLE
December 10th, 2012
5:05 pm
well glad to see we’re making smart investments in things that actually matter like education, transportation and public spaces. Because I thought people in this state didn’t like spending government money on COMPLETE WASTES OF TIME
earthworx
December 10th, 2012
5:06 pm
The Falcons need a new stadium, really!? The entire metro region is trying to make due with fewer police officers and teachers but this is what our elected leaders feel we need? Arthur Blank, a member of the Forbes 400, could write a check for the entire stadium and still be left with $450 million in pocket change. For him, paying for this stadium is equivalent to the rest of us buying a new computer or television.
We have just gone through an election season where a group of millionaires and billionaires threw away upwards of a billion dollars trying to buy the election. One spent over $150 million himself. Now one claims penury and expects the public to pony up the money for a new stadium when the present one is just fine. If these people have so much money to throw away like they’ve just demonstrated why can’t Arthur Blank establish a REIT and invite his friends to invest in a new stadium? Personally, I find this whole situation offensive.
AZiolko
December 10th, 2012
5:06 pm
Waste.
The Big Coat
December 10th, 2012
5:08 pm
Football was invented as a Fall/Winter sport to be played OUTSIDE. Contrary to belief, you will not always perish outside if the temperature happens to be below seventy-two degrees. The Falcons organization knew this twenty-three years ago.
DEAinATL
December 10th, 2012
5:08 pm
BUZZED – of course my tax dollars are involved. When the hotal tax is diverted from other purposes it diminshes the amount available to pay for other things – and those things get paid for by my taxes.
There are many legitimate instances of taxes imposded for no direct benefit, e.g., school tax for those without children – but ideally those sort of tax supported expenditures are for the greater good. My point is that in the case of the stadium the benefit is conferred on a private entity, which neither needs the money nor the stadium, which stadium will never be visited by 95% of the people.
pioneer
December 10th, 2012
5:09 pm
Sport is entertainment, Las Vegas and Hollywood except with passers and dunkers and hitters instead of singers and comedians and dancers.. The audience is filled with “fantasy” fans who simply want to be part of the crowd at work. Of course a new stadium is needed. Self-absorbed America is not going to attend a 20 year dome forever. If you want sport, support your local high school.
Screwball
December 10th, 2012
5:11 pm
Yes, the Falcons will bear 70% of the cost — by shaking down the NFL ticket buying public. When do they announce the PSL plan? Fans will have to pay thousands for the right to buy season tickets for hundreds.
DONNAN OF A NEW ERA
December 10th, 2012
5:19 pm
“Does Atlanta need a new stadium?”
Sure, it did wonders for the Marlins. A new stadium helped them win a WS (sarcasm for the incredibly stupid people who reside on this blog).
Hamad Meander
December 10th, 2012
5:25 pm
Here’s some more math to consider. Put PSL’s in place and the average is going to cost about $2,500. Times that by 80,000 seats = $200,000,000. So when they say the Falcons will put up $700 million of the deal, fans will actually be ponying up $200 million of that.
Look, I believe in capitalism as much as any business would, but this will not be a good deal for Atlanta or Falcon’s fans. Hosting a Superbowl has proven to be a losing prospect as well.
I do hope the true Falcon fans who spend their hard earned money on tickets say “No thank you” when the PSL’s come to town. And also say “No thank you” when it’s raining cats and dogs on gameday. And say “No thank you” when it’s 95 degrees in August for a preseason game or 32 degrees in December for a regular season stinker against the Bucs.
Skeezix
December 10th, 2012
5:28 pm
Welcome back Mark.
I hate this. With so many other critical needs, I can’t support a stadium Atlanta doesn’t really need.
Carpetbagger
December 10th, 2012
5:45 pm
Damn the ghost of Rankin Smith! He NEVER got it right! Paying for it twenty years later.
Carpetbagger
December 10th, 2012
5:45 pm
Damn the ghost of Rankin Smith! He NEVER got it right! Paying for it twenty years later.
MFranklin
December 10th, 2012
5:45 pm
This is the reality of a nation and economy locked in hell; spend more.
The Georgia Dome was built, basically, to keep the Smith regime from moving the Falcons to Jacksonville. In retrospect, that would have been a dumb move and typical of that ownership. But, we got the dome and it has been hated just a fiercely by the media as they hate our NFL franchise.
The Georgia Dome could be renovated and remodeled in ways that were included in the original plans and blueprints, to include another upper deck, expanded suites and parking nearby. When first offered, this stadium was predicted to serve Atlanta for no less than 50 years!
But… the NFL is on a slide right now and they are desperate for these stadiums. Once Goodell finishes reworking the rule book, chance are that even tackling an opponent will be a flag violation.
A new stadium sounds nice but… I do feel for those in my former home area of Atlanta because… you really don’t have a say in any of this.
Bobby
December 10th, 2012
5:46 pm
Rich McKay and Frank Poe are all smiles because they know they are about to shaft the citizens of Atlanta as well as visitors to the city to increase their pay checks as well as Arthur Blanks at taxpayer expense. How gullible the public is these days.
1lovefalcons20
December 10th, 2012
5:56 pm
ATLANTA=declining quality of life,not enough done to make the city livable and vibrant(LIKE WONDERFUL SEATTLE,WA)..CRIME DID I SAY CRIME??poorly planned ,and laid out..nasty,nasty traffic,blighted in some area,s ,state ranks low in education…BUT YOU WANNA TEAR DOWN A BEAUTIFUL 20 YEAR DOME AND BUILD ANOTHER ONE ??AT A BILLION DOLLARS??ARE YOU KIDDING ME??REALLY??
florida guy
December 10th, 2012
5:57 pm
While we build stadiums, the Chinese build aircraft carriers. We have truly become a nation of idiots. Fact is, a moron who can’t spell C-A-T if you spotted him the C and the A, but who can catch a football or throw a baseball, will make more than an entire school system’s teaching staff or a mid-size police force/fire department. And we wonder why as a nation we are sliding down faster than prune juice through an old man’s bowels. Again, excellent example of collective stupidity. We should have be standing at this meeting with torches and pitch forks
Wutehvah
December 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
City of Atlanta
- Crumbling infrastructure CHECK
- Terrible mass-transit system CHECK
- Poor performing school system CHECK
- Underpaid, overworked, understaffed police, fire, teachers CHECK
- A city that doesn’t attract tourists CHECK
Hey, but we’re getting a NEW dome to replace our current dome that’s perfectly fine.. and, we’re gettin’ a Super Bowl!! (Even though our team will never be in it). Regular fans will soon be priced right out of the dome for good.
Ridiculous!!