The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Why a new stadium; why now?
The Atlanta Falcons want to move into a new stadium when their lease on the Georgia Dome expires in 2018. The team and the Georgia World Congress Center are now proposing to tear down the Dome and build a nearly $1 billion stadium nearby with a retractabl
Q: Why did negotiations turn from an open-air stadium, which would have operated in tandem with the Georgia Dome, to a retractable-roof stadium that would replace the Dome? A: Frank Poe, executive director of the GWCC Authority, and Rich Mckay, president and CEO of the Falcons, concluded after many months of negotiation that two stadiums — one for indoor events and the other for outdoor — weren’t financially or logistically viable. “We made some progress in the two-stadium negotiation, but we ended up with some points that became very tough to overcome from both sides,” Mckay said. Major obstacles were how to sustain the Dome financially without the Falcons as a tenant and how to coordinate activities of two massive neighboring stadiums. Poe said the Falcons, who had wanted an open-air stadium, became receptive to a retractableroof facility that could be home to the NFL team as well as to events that require an indoor space. Q: What’s the timetable? A: The Falcons hope construction will begin in 2014 and be completed as early as 2017. Q: What are the remaining obstacles? A: The Falcons and the GWCC Authority must agree on terms, and both sides say important issues remain unresolved. Ultimately, the GWCC Authority board, which consists of 15 members appointed by the governor for fouryear terms, would have to approve any deal. Q: What are the chances of the Falcons leaving Atlanta, or at least downtown, if a deal is not reached? A: “We have never put on the table the thought of not trying to do a deal downtown,” Mckay said. “I think [team owner Arthur Blank’s] thought from the beginning was we should try to make a deal that involves keeping the franchise downtown, and that’s what we have focused on. Whether that would change at some point in time, I hope not [and] I don’t think so. Our focus will be trying to make this deal, but we’ll see where it takes us.” Q: Beyond the estimated $300 million from hotel-motel taxes, how would the stadium, with a current estimated price tag of $947.7 million, be paid for? A: No other public mon- ey will be sought, Poe has said repeatedly. If that holds, the only other apparent funding sources are the Falcons, the NFL and stadium-generated revenue, such as naming rights, personal seat licenses and higher ticket prices. The Falcons have declined to quantify publicly how much money they are willing to put into the deal. The NFL has a stadium construction program that could provide as much as $200 million in loans and grants. Q: What opportunity will the public have, if any, to comment on stadium plans? A: No public hearings are scheduled. The hotel-motel tax extension was approved by the Legislature in 2010 without much fanfare as a partial funding mechanism for a new or renovated stadium on GWCC property. Some Falcons seasonticketholders have complained that the team hasn’t polled them on stadium preference. Q: Other than more revenue, what do the Falcons want in a new stadium that the Dome doesn’t provide? A: Notes from a meeting of Falcons executives, GWCC officials and architects said the Falcons “have observed” changing preferences of clubseat buyers. “The club level has traditionally been located in a mid-level tier [as at the Dome]; it’s now trending to the lower bowl,” the notes stated. The value of lower-bowl seating “needs to be increased with deeper treads [for more legroom], wider seats and [adjacent] clubs spaces,” according to the notes, which stated that endzone suites above the lower bowl are not marketable and that upper-deck seats beyond the 30-yard lines and around the end zones are in lowest demand. “The NFL’S biggest competitor is a football fan’s living room; the game-day experience needs to add value in order to bring fans to the stadium,” the meeting notes said. Q: Would a new stadium bring new events to Atlanta? A: The NFL has signaled that the Super Bowl will not return to the Dome but that Atlanta would be well positioned to land the mega-event again if a new stadium is built. A Major League Soccer (MLS) team also could be a possibility. Blank has in the past expressed interest in buying an MLS team, and a new stadium would be designed to accommodate soccer. Q: Where would the stadium be built? A: Two sites are under consideration — one about one-half mile north of the Dome, the other just south of the Dome and west of the Gulch area. The first has been deemed feasible,the second is under review. Q: Why has the projected cost risen so much? A: The big differences between last year’s projection of $700 million for an open-air stadium and this week’s $947.7 million for a retractable-roof facility: $183.6 million for the roof, $8.2 million to demolish the Dome and the update of other figures to 2014 dollars. Q: Is the $947.7 million figure solid? A: No. Detailed design work hasn’t begun, and experts expect the price to rise, perhaps beyond $1 billion. Q: Will fans be asked to pay big bucks for seat licenses? A: Personal seat licenses (PSLS) have been part of the financing plan for several NFL stadiums in recent years, and some Falcons fans have expressed concern that will happen here. PSLS are one-time fees, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars, for the “right” to buy renewable season tickets for a particular seat. Mckay said the Falcons haven’t decided “what part of our plan [PSLS] would be, if at all.” Q: Rather than building a new retractable-roof stadium and demolishing the Dome, why not transform the Dome into a massively updated facility with a retractable roof ? A: A Gwcc-commissioned report by Kansas City-based architectural firm Populous shot down that idea, contending that such a massive renovation of the Dome would cost $859.3 million and still not satisfy current NFL seating preferences. The study also said the Falcons and other events would be displaced from the Dome during parts of a four-year construction period. Q: Would the stadium have natural grass or artificial turf ? A: Undecided; the Falcons say grass has had mixed success under retractable roofs.
Two Spelman College students were among five people robbed at gunpoint early Saturday at a park west of the campus, Atlanta police said.
College students have been the targets of a rash of robberies near or on several campuses in Atlanta, including at Georgia Tech and Georgia State.
The victims — two female Spelman students, another woman and two males — were robbed about 2 a.m. Saturday at Dean Rusk Park, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Police said two of the women were 19 and the third was 20; the two males were 24 and 26.
Police spokesman John Chafee said the victims were sitting in the park on Sells Avenue and saw two men walking nearby.
“The males approached the victims and each pointed a handgun at them,” Chafee said in an email. “The suspects ordered the victims to take their clothes off. ... The victims were then ordered into a nearby pool and the suspects fled on foot.”
The victims said their wallets, cellphones and keys were stolen.
Six people who defrauded Wachovia, Bank of America and Washington Mutual of more than $3.7 million with fraudulent home-equity loan applications were sentenced in federal court Friday.
The group, including four from metro Atlanta, received one to nearly six years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.
The ringleaders recruited “straw borrowers” to apply for homeequity loans using bogus quit-claim deeds and other documents. Proceeds of the loans then were passed to the ringleaders, according to prosecutors.
A former Bank of America employee also was recruited to usher more than $1.4 million in fraudulent home equity loans in exchange for cash, meals, a resort gift card and diamond rings, prosecutors said.
Metro Atlanta residents sentenced were Shalena Sutherlin, 27, of Douglasville; Catasha Browning, 36, of Douglasville; Todd Ivery, 43, of Kennesaw; and Hung Quoc Nguyen, 30, of Buford. Ringleaders were Otis Bernard Livingston, 44, of Gulfport, Miss., and Dionne Michelle Whitted, 37, of Castle Hayne, N.C.