May 24, 2010
Everybody but Falcons still loves Georgia Dome
The Atlanta Falcons may insist that the Georgia Dome is lacking in "fan experience," but the 17-year-old stadium is getting plenty of love elsewhere.
Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center that operates the dome, insists that it won't be torn down even if a new Falcons stadium is built because it would still be needed for college bowl games and NCAA basketball tournaments. That seems a bit dubious — can you really profitably run a stadium on a few college football games a year and an occasional basketball tournament? — but at least it's nice to see that somebody can run a dome without running up red ink just in operating costs.
Meanwhile, former Georgia Dome GM Khalil Johnson was even more blunt about the state of the Falcons' current home, and what he thinks of their demands for a new one:
Said Johnson, who now works out of Douglasville as a consultant regarding events and venues: "What's the pressing need? More money for the ownership. I don't know how that lines up with what the public wants ... I just question whether the public needs to give more when most of the benefits will go to a private owner."
About the Dome, Johnson said: "It may not be a great building but it's a damn good building. And improvements can be made … The bones of Georgia Dome are good. Ask anybody in the business, and they'll tell you that. It would make more economic sense to improve the Georgia Dome."
Falcons president Rich McKay says that the team is "extremely sensitive to the current economic environment" and that they hope to have a new stadium built in the "next six or seven years." Which should give them plenty of time to find a way to get Poe and Johnson to shut up.
May 20, 2010
Falcons want new stadium (repeat, 2009)
Throw another stadium demand on the fire: Atlanta Falcons team president Rich McKay declared yesterday that his team wants a new stadium to replace the Georgia Dome in the next ... hang on, didn't I write this story already? Wait here.
(Google google.)
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank ... yesterday reiterated that he wants a new home to replace the 17-year-old Georgia Dome, ideally as soon as the dome's bonds are paid off, which could be as soon as 2015. "The Falcons are falling behind other teams in the NFL in terms of the experience for our fans," Blank told reporters.
The news here, I guess, if there is any, is that McKay said the Falcons want an open-air stadium now, saying a retractable roof would cost too much, and, well, they already have a dome. Not that this excuses USA Today for not even reading the fershlugginer Atlanta Journal-Constitution article they were ripping off before writing their headline.
October 23, 2009
Atlanta suburb votes down Falcons stadium before it's even proposed
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has barely even started his new stadium campaign, and already prospective sites are taking themselves out of the running: The tiny city of Doraville (best known, it appears, for being the birthplace of The Atlanta Rhythm Section) voted this week to oppose any plans to build a Falcons stadium on the site of the city's shuttered GM plant. "The county seems to think a stadium would be a wonderful thing," Doraville Mayor Ray Jenkins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Our citizens overwhelmingly are not for that." Not that anyone has actually proposed a stadium there — DeKalb County supposedly has a "conceptual plan" for one, but hasn't made anything public — but better safe than sorry.
October 09, 2009
Here comes the next stadium wave
Blame it on Cowboys Stadium, or blame it on Ed Roski, but there certainly seems to be a rush of teams looking to get back on the new-stadium line these days, despite having old stadiums that aren't even of legal drinking age.
The latest is Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who yesterday reiterated that he wants a new home to replace the 17-year-old Georgia Dome, ideally as soon as the dome's bonds are paid off, which could be as soon as 2015. "The Falcons are falling behind other teams in the NFL in terms of the experience for our fans," Blank told reporters, in what has to be an allusion to the Cowboys' new building. The Falcons owner was previously reported to be scouting sites around Atlanta for a new building; he says it would be paid for by a mix of public and private funds, which doesn't actually explain anything, but sounds good in the papers.
Also upping the ante: NFL VP Frank Supovitz, who the day before told the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce that the Miami Dolphins' 25-year-old Land Shark Stadium — don't worry, only a couple more months of this before we can go back to calling it Dolphins Stadium — may not be modern enough to host more Super Bowls after this season. "You have to look at what the other cities are offering in terms of comfort," said Supovitz, noting that in Miami fans and players are actually exposed to the weather. "I'm not going to have anyone rained on in North Texas. They're not going to get rained on in Indianapolis." Dolphins CEO Mike Dee said the team is "working with the NFL to see what should be done," which is certainly a nice way of casting the league as Bad Cop should the team demand a new or vastly renovated stadium.
Then there's Milwaukee, where the Bradley Center just turned 21 years old last week, and Ulice Payne, the chair of the arena's board of directors, declared Tuesday that the buildinghas only eight years left before it turns into a pumpkin. (Among Payne's complaints: Its scoreboard is 14 years old, and it has ceramic tiles, which are so 1990s.) Bucks owner Herb Kohl hasn't commented yet, but he's previously proclaimed his desire for a new, younger facility. As for Payne, he first got involved in sports as a member of Miller Park's board, which he then parlayed into a turn as CEO of the Brewers — so it's always possible he's just angling for a job in basketball this time.