So says the AJC, including an emphatic statement from Blank that the new arena will be financed with a combination of public and private funds:
The owner of the Atlanta Falcons again said he was nosing around downtown Atlanta as well as other parts of the city for a new place for the team to play. Blank, who has been talking for months about the need of a new stadium to replace the 17-year-old Georgia Dome, said the process could take years — seven, he said — and will be backed with private and public money.
A new Georgia Dome is also a possibility. Blank said he continues to talk to the Georgia World Congress Center, which manages the Dome. A new Dome is included in the Congress Center’s master plan, which came out last year.
In an environment where taxpayers have grown tired of financing private enterprise, Blank may be facing an uphill PR battle. So please allow me to be what may appear totally inconsistent from my position on similar issues and say I have no problem with the City or State backing construction bonds for a new Dome.
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If the people of Doraville are on board with the bonds, then more power to ‘em, I say.
Please please please put better food vendors in the Dome before worrying about building a new one!
I was at the Dome this last week and commented on how good the food looked. The venue is still nice, hard to believe it is 17 years old.
Here’s the part I don’t like about public finance on these projects:
Using public money to cannibalize an existing project seems wrong to me. If the GA Dome was built using public money, I don’t think that public money should be used to build a venue 20 miles away.
Interesting… I was there Tuesday night and all I kept doing was trying to find something — ANYTHING — that wasn’t smothered hot dog or stale burger. Near 115 you can get BBQ, which is the only change of pace in the entire place.
Philips has MUCH better choices.
I guess I saw the BBQ and that is what got me all happy. Hope you enjoyed U2, they rocked, though I thought Muse sounded like loud white noise.
Hard to believe it’s been 17 years. I remember all the hype about its construction like it was yesterday–how there were ‘no bad seats,’ it had the latest technology, etc.
What benefit is there to the Falcons, the city, or the state in building a completely new building? Sports facilities seem to have the shortest lifespan among commercial buildings these days.
My guess is this has to do with leasing “skyboxes” and getting the next Super Bowl back in Atlanta regardless of ice storms.
Yes, Byte. It’s all about skyboxes largely benefitting the rich at the expense of the rank and file fan. Arther Blank tops the list as a beneficiary with the franchise increasing by a $100M bump in its value.
The rank and file meanwhile will see a significant bump in ticket price without a correspondingly significant bump in the experience. But hey, what’s another $15 added to the price of 70,000 tickets to be able to add 3,000 skybox seats?
Growing up, I loved going to the Orange Bowl. Dolphin/Joe Robbie/Dolphin/Pro Players/Dolphin/Landshark Stadium just sucks for ambience, but it has lots of nice boxes for the doctors, lawyers, and drug cartels. And the price of tickets keeps going up.
It’s fun to watch in the stands, but it’s cheaper and easier to just get NFL Sunday Ticket.
the problem with that is there are lots of empty, unleased “skyboxse” in the GA dome right now. people don’t seem to be clamoring for more skyboxes.
Yeah, no kidding. St. Pete just went through this process and the citizens, through massive outcry, stymied the project before it even got to a vote.
Doraville is sitting on 162 acres of the most prime realty to come on market in ten years. I am really curious to see how DeKalb and most likely, Sembler, will finesse this one.
Putting stadiums AWAY from the Atlanta’s core induces additional outflow traffic at rush hour. I cannot goto see the GWINCO Braves first pitch without horrendous traffic.
I think this is all a tactic to renegotiate the existing lease.
The renegotiation tactic may indeed be the underlying desire.
Part of what Dekalb wants for the GM site is a work/live/play situation, and I don’t see a monster stadium for football being a good fit for that vision.
Live/Work/Play and put GA Perimeter College over there. I think Jill has it right, make some sort of educational use there.
It would certainly help improve traffic in one of the areas where we’re looking to move
I doubt the City of Doraville has the bonding capacity. This is more than likely a DeKalb issuance.
DeKalb is considering buying the GM site right now. That seems like a huge waste of money. Why take that property off the tax rolls? This seems the kind of deal that the public should weigh in. I doubt a referendum could pass that would bail out Arthur Blank and guarantee a profit for Sembler.
It was a… nevermind.
falcons fans will need bonding ability to afford the tickets.
I think a new building would be a good push to build Atlanta as a sports meca. College football hall of fame, SEC championships, Major bowl game, brand new facility, etc.
It may be just a pipe dream but hey, this is Atlanta.
Please do this, but I want an OUTDOOR arena.
Check out Seattle’s field or Pittsburgh’s baseball stadium for examples.
I’m okay with the dome. The Panthers game happened during torrential downpour and I loved the fact that we had a roof. Plus, a dome can attract a couple of other major events every now and then.
It’s odd how NFL stadiums wear out and become obsolete in a couple of decades while college stadiums get better. Imagine if the AD at UGA decided that Samford Stadium wasn’t good enough any more and wanted to tear it down to build a new state-of-the-art multimedia interactive fan experience stadium. While he was at it, he decided to move it away from campus and out of Athens into another county.
Yes it is somewhat of an apple to orange comparison but the notion that stadiums get so outdated that they have to be replaced is odd. Sure some stadiums were horribly designed and needed to be torn down but overall, it amazes me how colleges can find ways to make their stadiums adapt over almost a century while NFL teams all need the newest stadium in the country in order to survive.
Bingo.
Agreed and greed
there was a spot created on the moon this morning, blank could probably pick it up pretty cheap after the bombing.
Have they looked into the “dig a hole” method? You dig a big hole with a big rectangle at the bottom. And pile the dirt around the hole where you put the bleachers. Then on the weekdays you bring in goats to munch on the grass under the bleachers. And needless to say, goats are a source of meat. It tastes good.
I was living in southwest Georgia when the Dome was first being proposed and built. There was a lot of anger at the idea of tax money collected statewide being used for something that benefits only Atlanta.
Hopefully, this go-around, they won’t look at using one dime of state tax money, bonds, or anything that causes someone from Cairo, Thomasville, or Bainbridge to ever pay one dime of their taxes towards something that is only for Atlanta.
And, for the uninformed like me – what the heck is wrong with the Dome, other than it is in Atlanta?
There was a lot of anger at the idea of tax money collected statewide being used for something that benefits only Atlanta
… because Lord knows that only tax money collected from activities in Atlanta stays in Atlanta, riiiiiiight?
Not.
This “us vs. them” mentality is ridiculous and continues to cost the state.
See above for possible reasons the Dome is needing replacement already.
The cesspool that is Atlanta uses more tax money than they generate. Non-Atlantans already foot the bill for Atlanta. The Dome gave next to nothing back to the non-Atlanta portion of the state (which is most of Georgia), yet the non-Atlanta portion of the state had to help pay for it.
When Atlanta decides they want to be a part of Georgia, the “us versus them” stuff will stop. We were us before them was them.
I understand that things like roads and bridges are paid for from statewide taxes. There is a tangible benefit to the state for Atlanta and the rest of the state having good roads. But the Dome is not a necessity. If the business case for a new Dome is not good enough for private investment, it is not good enough for sinking tax money into it.
You have your numbers exactly backwards, MSBS. Atlanta produces way more in tax money for the state than they receive. The taxes collected from every convention that comes to town, every Braves game, every Falcons game, every concert, etc. funds schools and government activities in South Georgia whether you appreciate it… or not.
Deal with it
It must be nice to live in such a fantasy world. The taxes you mentioned are a drop in the bucket to the taxes paid statewide. I challenge you to go look at state tax revenue (all sources) generated by county in Georgia and still make that silly statement.
Got a link to back up your claims? I’m always happy to admit I’m wrong when I’m shown the error in my ways.
I do my own research – I suggest you do yours. You are the one alleging Atlanta pays more in tax money than they receive.
Which means you have nothing to back up your counter-claim. Okee-dokee.
I notice you did not argue with this, which is the issue:
“I understand that things like roads and bridges are paid for from statewide taxes. There is a tangible benefit to the state for Atlanta and the rest of the state having good roads. But the Dome is not a necessity. If the business case for a new Dome is not good enough for private investment, it is not good enough for sinking tax money into it.”
No, I’m not going to argue it per-se. I think that — like the GWCC — if investing in it (by, say, guaranteeing the bonds taken out by the city or by Art Blank’s company) will produce more revenue over the same period than the bonds will cost, then it’s a good deal and we the people should approve it.
I’m not clear, though, about Blank’s logic for wanting a new stadium. I’ve been to dumpy stadiums and I’ve been to good ones. GaDome is on the upper-end of the scale still (except for the food). I’d like to see them get another 10 years out of it before starting to replace it.
So at this point, I’m still open to being convinced whether it’s even needed for Atlanta to purchase.
And, yes, there are some definite benefits to Georgia from having a world-class arena for an NFL team and those benefits aren’t directly tied to sales tax revenue. It’s all part of the package for enticing new businesses to the state.
MSBS
“The cesspool that is Atlanta uses more tax money than they generate. Non-Atlantans already foot the bill for Atlanta.”
You are so wrong. So very, very wrong. Please see attached analysis of state revenues from metro Atl and state expenditures in Atl, and gently try to remove your head from whatever hole you currently find yourself.
Here is an excerpt from the Exec Summary.
“The metropolitan Atlanta region is defined in two ways for this analysis. The first definition is the ten county core area defined by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) planning district.1 We call this area the Metro10. The second is a 28 county area that the U.S. Census currently defines as the Atlanta metropolitan area.2 We call this area the Metro28. We find that the residents of the Metro10 area provided approximately 51 percent of Georgia state revenues and received approximately 37 percent of Georgia state expenditures. The residents of the Metro28 area accounted for approximately 61 percent of Georgia state revenue and
received approximately 47 percent of Georgia state expenditures for fiscal year 2004. We next briefly discuss revenue and expenditure allocations as well as the robustness of our estimates.”
“We find that the Atlanta metropolitan area generates more revenue than it receives in expenditures, a result that is not surprising. The policy question is: Is the magnitude of the net flows appropriate? Certainly, wealthier areas of the state should have a negative net flow, but the issue is whether the current net outflow of revenue less expenditures is too high or too low. That is not an issue we address in this report.”
The fact is your community and you are being subsidized by the “cesspool that is Atlanta”. Next time you’re looking for a welfare cheat, check the mirror. Honestly I don’t mind subsdizing your schools because education is the only way ignorance is eliminated. However, I do object to sending my transportation dollars your way. So I’ll gladly make a deal to help pay for your schools, if you’ll just let us keep our transportation dollars.
http://aysps.gsu.edu/frc/files/Rpt_188FIN.pdf
Thanks! I knew I’d heard about the report, but a quick Google this afternoon around what I was working on wasn’t getting me either to the report OR the finish line on my project.
I’ve been going to Falcon games since I moved here in 2002. Now, I live a short scooter ride to the game. Before that, Ted Turner and I used to walk to the games.
No not together, but he was my cross street neighbor. One of the cool things about urban living is mocking the suburbanites who creep along in their SUV’s and Falcon Flags™ while we stroll on over to the game.
In a few weeks, the missus and I will fly to Dallas (my hometown) and see the Falcons play in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. I’ll let you know then if the experienced was ‘enhanced’ over a regular game at the old Texas Stadium.
Oh, and wiki Reunion Arena. The taxpayers are still paying for that building, as well as the newer American Airlines Arena 1 mile north. Perfectly good buildings (Reunion and Texas Stadium) just sitting there.
There has to be a better way!
I really do want to know how you get the little TM to show up as superscript.
Use the “View Source” in your browser. He adds an ampersand trade after “flags”. Flags&trade
Flags&trade ?
Flags ™ ?
Ah ha! Need the semi-colon after the trade.
Rick won’t come off that–Been buggin’ him to share…..
Correction- I am too dense to figger that out….
MS BS
See above reply under your “cesspool” post.
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