The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FAN FOR LIFE
Why this Sandy Springs woman loves her team so much,
Cindy Lacey’s first memory of football is watching an Atlanta Falcons game with her late father. When the team played their first preseason football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in 1966, she was 6 years old.
“I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember,” Lacey says.
In 1998, Lacey and her father bought season tickets, and she has missed only two games since then. She has Falcons jerseys, three pairs of team tennis shoes, socks, a watch and belts among her team gear.
“I’m a screaming fan,” Lacey says. “I’m the one that is yelling and standing up on third down, telling everyone to be quiet when they have the ball, but to make noise when the other team has
the ball, to distract them.”
The Sandy Springs resident was anything but quiet when the Falcons won the NFC championship game in January, but was later curs
ing, she says, while driving home from the Super Bowl loss in Houston.
The Falcons’ move into new luxury digs lessens the pain, despite the increase in ticket costs for Lacey. Her two seats at the 25-yard line, on the visitors side, have increased from $2,800 last season to $6,800, which includes a percentage of Lacey’s personal seat license expense. Her total PSL fee is $30,000.
“I’m annoyed it costs me so much, but I do believe the fans should be paying for it,” she says.
Lacey won an opportunity for a tour of the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a drawing before the 2016 season started.
Falcons head coach Dan Quinn was her tour guide. “He said, ‘Hi, Cindy, how are you doing?’” Lacey recalls. Thinking he knew her, she was exhilarated before real- izing he had simply read her name tag.
“I’m excited that we are getting a new stadium,” she adds. “I could see that it was going to be a fabulous.”