Maybe they should have waited to set the price for hot dogs and beer.
The already-expensive Falcons stadium continues to get more and more expensive, although it’s still not clear exactly how expensive it will be. Originally expected to cost $1 billion, the final tally apparently will be much closer to $2 billion than to $1 billion.
Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Falcons have ordered $200 million in changes to the venue, with roughly half of that amount coming last month.
The good news for taxpayers is that the Falcons are responsible for any cost overruns. The bad news for the Falcons is that the Falcons are responsible for any cost overruns.
The costs have overrun so much that the specific amount of overruns don’t seem to add up. The report obtained by the Journal-Constitution puts the projected expense at $1.5 billion. But that was the operative number a year ago. Despite my limited mathematical skills, this would suggest that the stadium costs have moved to at least $1.6 billion — and possibly (depending on when the other $100 million in changes were ordered) $1.7 billion.
Since public dollars won’t be used to fund the excess, it doesn’t really matter, except from a P.R. perspective. At some point, someone who reports to team owner Arthur Blank will look really bad for not properly estimating the cost of the facility. Based on the information already known, someone already does.