The Atlanta Falcons want to replace the Georgia Dome, which opened in 1992, with a new stadium, an open-air venue.
The initial numbers suggest that the cost of a new home isn’t tremendously more than the cost of fixing the one they’re currently in.
According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle (via SportsBusiness Daily), renovations to the Georiga Dome would cost $400 million. A new open-air structure would cost $800 million.
Some in Atlanta prefer a structure with a roof, since it could then be used for events that ordinarily aren’t conducted in the elements, like the NCAA basketball tournament. (Although, frankly, I’d be way more inclined to watch the NCAA basketball tournament if it were conducted in the elements.)
“the cost of a new home isn’t tremendously more than the cost of fixing the one they’re currently in.”
Yes Gregg. $400 million isn’t that much!
stadium is less than 20 yrs old
no need for a new one
eventually no fans will be able to afford going to games, everything will be blacked out, and DirecTv subscriptions will rise beyond belief
These bozos still don’t get it.
Thirty states are bankrupt.
If taxpayers aren’t footing the bill, then hell, I’m all for it.
But they better not dare spend that much taxpayer money on a completely unneeded stadium.
Assuming a new stadium would not be built with private $$$ (since the majority aren’t), Georgia taxpayers gotta feel great knowing they need to fork up more money because the old venue couldn’t last for 20 years. Lame.
Wow, that’s a lot of cash to get the ‘dead dog smell’ outta the locker room!
Refurbish the Dome and put on a retractable roof.
The Georgia Dome is in a great location, right downtown.
well, super duper suites, clubs, restaurantes in stadiums, lounge areas, updated concessions, HD scoreboards, LED ribbons, probably need to update media booths, press boxes, owners boxes. New revenue stream ideas are coming in like new cell phone specs. I mean, i wouldn’t be suprised if Baltimore wants to redo their stadium sometime soon. FED EX went through a renovation. I mean, look at meadowlands, it’s got new streams all over the place, Dallas as well. The Problem with the ATL is that that city is full of apathy. My expereince with ATL is that it’s generally a lethargic place. A new building or fixing up the DOME can re-energize a base for a few years, but for whatever reason, excitement is hard to sustain in that city. Look at the braves, they had that run of playoff teams and for years couldn’t fill that stadium for sed playoff games. Just something off kilter there
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Cost to repair and refurbish the Superdome after Katrina – 185 million.
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“The initial numbers suggest that the cost of a new home isn’t tremendously more than the cost of fixing the one they’re currently in”
It’s twice as much. You are certainly an Obamaite coolaide drinker. $400MM is tremendously more. BTW Florio your forehead is getting bigger than Peyton Mannings. You are evolving from Eddie Munster to Peyton Jr.
It’s one of the oldest stadiums in the league, I think only behind Lambeau and the Superdome. ATL needs to compete with the NY and Dallas stadiums.
400 million dollars isn’t a tremendous amount of money?
In what world is twice the amount not “tremendously more”?
Gee, I paid half price for these tickets, but if I had paid full price, it wouldn’t have been tremendously more!
The Falcons want a new stadium that only opened up only 18 years ago? Eff multibillion dollar sports franchises that want new stadiums that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build every few years at the cost to the hardworking taxpayers who can barely afford to attend a football game anymore.
It’s a complete waste of money
redskins
“The initial numbers suggest that the cost of a new home isn’t tremendously more than the cost of fixing the one they’re currently in.”
According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle (via SportsBusiness Daily), renovations to the Georiga Dome would cost $400 million. A new open-air structure would cost $800 million.”
Dude — in what universe is $400 million dollars “not tremendously more?”
That’s got to be some kind of typo; right? Like you meant to type “$450 million” but somehow keyed in”$800″ instead?
“It’s one of the oldest stadiums in the league, I think only behind Lambeau and the Superdome. ATL needs to compete with the NY and Dallas stadiums.”
Um, hello? Ralph Wilson Stadium? 1973?
# Sporkdevil says: September 29, 2010 5:20 PM
It’s one of the oldest stadiums in the league, I think only behind Lambeau and the Superdome. ATL needs to compete with the NY and Dallas stadiums.
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Not even close. Dumbass.
I WANT BASKETBALL OUTSIDE FACING THE ELEMENTS
This is getting way out of control and the NFL is headed for a haircut of major proportions. Just wait.
As a Falcons season ticket holder for 7 years now, I can tell you that the Dome is fine. It would be a blistering waste of money to build a new one. I’m down with a retractable roof though.
As a Minnesotan, I know that the Metrodome… I mean Mall of America Field… is ten years older than the Georgia Dome.
The Metrodome was barely teenaged before the Twins wanted out, so I keep having to ask: if taxpayers buy their local team a stadium, what gives them any reason to believe they won’t come back asking for money again?
To paraphrase South Park: “Spare some change? … spare some more change?”
@Sporkdevil:
Get your facts straight before posting comments! At least 11 teams have stadiums older than ATL and most of those stadiums are 30+ years old not 18! So one third of all teams have older stadiums!
KC, SF, JAC, MIN, GB, NO, OAK, SD, BUF, CHI and MIA all have older stadiums than ATL. I’m sure there are others that are older that I left out!
This is all about luxury boxes and club seating plus the new HD equipment, digital stream lining and other advancements. The ATL owner should worry about his team being a winning team this year and the possibility of a lockout next year.
I am not a fan of public funding or public authorities being created to build stadiums when we are laying off police, fire, teachers etc and closing municipal buildings. They claim it is economic development and job creation. Well look what happened to the Stimilus Bill and what it was intended for and it did nothing. We were lucky that Bob Kraft built his new stadium with no PSL’s and the public money was used for road improvements not stadium construction. We have Fenway which will be 100 yrs old soon. And it is still standing after a rehab with NO public money ever spent.
…plus the new stadium would be open. How many tremendously more “not tremendously more” dollars would it cost for a closed or retractable site? After 18 years? There is someone looking at smokin’ ATL, and it isn’t Sherman this time.
I think the New York Giants/Jets Stadium is starting to get kind of outdated. It’s time they started asking taxpayers for a new one.
Arthur Blank owns what?…………HOME DEPOT!!!
Let him build it himself from the goods in his stores.
$400 Million is not a lot of money ………..and yet …….. “More and more teams are playing in structures with a retractable roof, but that feature adds a lot of money to the bottom line.”
First of all, you can buy a retractable roof for less than $400M which according to you is not a lot of money.
Secondly….who are all of the teams that are playing in retractable domes? Lets see……there’s Houston…..and Dallas……..and there’s Indy. Three out of thirty two. Does that qualify as “more and more” ?
The reason the refurbishment to open air cost so much has less to do with suites and club levels and much more to plumbing.
If you take the roof off, there is NO PLACE for water to go if it rains (or snows). It would just puddle up on the field and in the stands.
The field does not have a drainage system, and the first row of each section does not contain a drain. They have to refit the entire place to allow for water to escape and tie it into the domestic water system. Even if you make the roof retractable, you still have to address the issue of drainage in the stands and floor.
I got this info from the Atlanta GA website. They upgraded the stadium in 08 already so what exactly do they want now? With the Georgia Heat and weather why would they want an open stadium?
Developer: Georgia World Congress Center Authority
Upgrade of luxury suites and club lounge, exterior repainted, 71,000 seats replaced, new light fixtures, new ceiling/wall treatments, updated bathrooms, enhanced video boards
$30 million
Completed 2008
Jerry Jones put up over 600 million for his playhouse let Arthur Blank
@TDL8-
If you are going to tell someone to get their facts straight, you need to get your own staraight first.
Chicago completely redid their stadium about 7 years ago- the facade was left because of it’s landmark status, but the entire inside was gutted and redone. If you look at it from the outside, it looks like a spaceship landed in the Parthenon.
Jacksonville’s stadium was done 3 years after the Falcons.
Green Bay spent 300 million to upgrade their stadium that was finished in 2003. It’s essentially new- the bowl was kept intact and the grass field, but everything else was gutted and upgraded.
TDL8 – I’m not saying that you’re totally off base, but if you’re going to criticize someone for not having their facts straight….at least get YOUR facts right.
The Chicago stadium is only a few years old. The only thing left from Old Soldier Field is the concrete facade out front. The stadium itself is entirely new.
The old Gator Bowl was totally torn down, and the current Jacksonville Stadium was completed in 1995, three years after the Georgia Dome.
Kansas City just finished a major renovation, and Green Bay had a major overhaul just a few years ago.
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
Georgia needs to tell Arthur Blank that if he wants new digs, build them himself. Keep all the profits himself, whatever, just quit begging for money when you’re a billionaire and you are pricing out the citizens of Georgia. And that goes for every team begging for taxpayers money.
And the Vikings… I’m in ND (know why we don’t have a good football team? Minnesota would want one. Hah!) and I can’t understand why the Gophers and Vikings couldn’t build something together. Why does Minneapolis/St Paul need the Xcel, Target Center, Target Field, TCF Bank Stadium, AND a new Vikings park?
TCF Bank Stadium: $306.6M started in 2006
Xcel Energy Center: $170.3M started in 1998
Target Center: $168.5M started in 1990
Target Field: $563.5M started in 2007
New Vikings Stadium: $800M estimate
(all adjusted to today’s dollars)
Meanwhile, combine TCF Bank (Gophers football) and the Vikings, save $300M. Combine the Timberwolves and Wild, save $170M. Half a billion dollars. Yet the Vikings are threatening to leave if they don’t get their own new stadium. Know what I say?
Happy trails!
A public works project run by a government agency will always cost more than a privately financed job. Who built the Dome?
It’s practically new? How can any city or state ever trust the NFL, after only 18 years? What are they supposed to do, demolish it? Idiotic in the first place that Atlanta put a roof on that thing.
Always nice when the Greedy creep NFL owners decide that it’s time for everyone to pay for there billion dollar stadiums and like drones people find a way to get it done for them.
You’d think in this day and age of technology that they could build a stadium that would last at least a measly 50 to 100 years? Hell no… Where will it ever end?
“If taxpayers aren’t footing the bill, then hell, I’m all for it.
But they better not dare spend that much taxpayer money on a completely unneeded stadium.”
Taxpayers or fans, one or the other.
If it’s fans, it’s a hefty tax. Assume 60,000 seats, 10 games per year, 15 years until they build a new stadium, let’s say about 10 million total seats. $400 million is a $40/game tax for the privilege of watching the same game in a shinier version of the same stadium.
Sure, some of that will be paid by luxury suites and such, or defrayed by extra revenue from other events. But a whole lot of that $400M will be on the backs of fans in terms of higher prices for tickets, parking, and concessions.
Who needs this crap?
Kudos to DC_BENGALS_FAN for the math.
The Seattle Sonics played in KeyArena, built in 1962. In 1995, it was renovated at an end cost of $81M, bringing it up to then-current NBA “standards”, adding 3,000 seats, etc. The Sonics paid about 25% of the costs. In 2004, a proposal was submitted for a $220M renovation, the city declined, “no arena, we’re gone”. Off Oklahoma, exciting team, franchise has become financially viable again.
The Sacramento Kings are going through a “Renovations aren’t enough, give us a new arena or we’re going to Vegas” phase also. And they’re arena is 22 years old.
Let them go, quit FORCING taxpayers into buying you new sources of income!
@frank booth
@Nuckinfutz
I do have my facts straight! All the stadiums I listed were originally built long before ATL’s was! They may have been upgraded, refurbished or renovated more recently than that but it’s still the same building! I am going by the original date the stadium was opened!
I understand your argument but let me ask you this:
If I buy a 1965 Cadillac and repaint it today… Does it make it a 2010 Cadillac? Hell no! ABSOLUTELY NOT! It’s still the same damn 1965 car!
Even if we go by your analogy there are still plenty of teams that have older stadiums than ATL! Not just 2! I guess I win this argument either way!
Jacksonville and Chicago are NOT the same building. In Jacksonville the entire Gator Bowl was completely torn down, and a totally new stadium was completed in 1995.
In Chicago, there is also a completely new stadium. It just happened to be built within the external facade of the old Soldier Field. As someone said, it looks like a space ship landed inside ancient Rome or Greece. The city decided to leave the old columns in place for historical reasons, but make no mistake about it…..they tore down the old stadium itself, and built a completely new stadium. The only thing remaining from the old Soldier Field is a few decorative pillars.
It’s the same thing as if you decided to tear your house down and build a brand new, shiny, contemporary on the same land…… but you keep the front gate and the bird bath in place to preserve the memories. It’s still a new house.
I think this would be a huge mistake. Atlanta has gotten Superbowls, the SEC Championship, and probably a host of other games because of this dome. Atlanta can really get extreme weather (Hot in winter months, and then the next week have freezing temperatures). Without a roof, I don’t believe Atlanta would receive the same type of consideration for high profile games.
If the Owner wants a new stadium, he should pay for most of it. All? No b/c the city also sees a benefit….but most? Yes because the team brings in millions for themselves AND cities can’t afford paying millions