Minnesota’s U.S. Bank Stadium provided a gorgeous setting for Super Bowl LII (a gorgeous, taxpayer-subsidized setting).
Now, officials in Atlanta acknowledge they have some work to be ready for next year’s final game.
Via Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Falcons officials admit they have some work to do over the next year to get the place where they want it to be.
The building’s signature retractable roof was only open for one Falcons game last season, and one MLS match. They want to smooth out the kinks in that significant detail, improve the stadium’s sound system and create a new green space in the hole next door where the Georgia Dome once stood.
“We’re also meeting every week on all kinds of little things we’re still finishing in the building,” said Scott Jenkins, the stadium’s general manager. “It takes two years (after opening), in my experience, to finish a building and get it running the way you want.”
There are only two events scheduled for the building before the MLS season starts on March 11 (a monster truck show and a Supercross motorcycle race), so they have a relatively free schedule to get some work in.
They’re also adding three more sets of double doors and an overhead rolling door to help ease congestion on the way out of events, and preparing the old Georgia Dome site for a new tailgating and parking area.