Public-Private Partnership Is the Right Answer for Falcons New Stadium

Myriad Reasons Justify Use of Taxes to Keep City’s Venues World Class

ATLANTA, Georgia --Several years ago when John Schuerholz first became general manager of the Atlanta Braves and Stan Kasten was the club president, one of their major concerns was the need for a new stadium. Many in Atlanta were skeptical since, in their minds, Fulton County Stadium seemed to be perfectly adequate. It wasn’t.

In addition to showing the wear and tear or almost 25 years of use, the stadium lacked the adequate number of amenities (e.g., suites, high tech scoreboard, LED signage) that drive revenue and make the facility a suitable representative for a world class city. When Atlanta was awarded the Olympics, the stadium project received a boost since it was first used for the Olympics then converted to a new home for the Braves.

Univesity of Phoenix Stadium added $3.8
billion in economic impact over 10 years

This time the city and the Atlanta Falcons will have no such assistance. But the need for a new facility is just as acute and the proposed public-private partnership is unquestionably the answer. Even better, local taxpayers will not bear the burden since the cost of the stadium will come from a hotel-motel tax already in existence.

Many believe that owners such as Arthur Blank should bear all or the largest share of the financial burden, but what is overlooked is the fact that this is not Arthur Blank’s stadium any more than the Falcons are his team and his alone.

Just ask the thousands upon thousands of fans who live and die with the Falcons, the Braves or the Hawks. Think of thousands of people who find full or part-time employment at our stadiums and the arena. Think of how Atlanta’s hotels and restaurants benefit from activity downtown. Think of businesses that attract employees to Atlanta by pointing to the city’s entertainment as a major quality-of-life advantage.

Atlanta is known worldwide because of one event—the 1996 Olympics, which just so happens to be the grandest of all sporting extravaganzas. Atlanta is known throughout the nation because every day of the year, the name of the city is mentioned on radio and television and on the web because of the Braves, Hawks or Falcons. Need more?

Major events such as the Super Bowl and All-Star games are driven by first class venues. The Super Bowl and the NBA, NHL and MLB All-Star Games would never have come here if the Omni and Fulton County Stadium were all we had.

This week the Atlanta-Journal Constitution ran a guest column, which offered a splendid argument for the necessity of public support of a new stadium. The writer, Corey Merrified of Minnesota, where a vote takes place Monday on funding for a new stadium in the Twin Cities, said “I have a message for Georgians who are on the fence about a new stadium: It is worth every penny.”

Merrifield points out that, “Stadiums are more than just playgrounds for the rich…Who in their right mind would build a $1 billion facility to use 10 to 12 days a year?...The stadium is a community asset the other 353 days a year.” He also notes that when he speaks to “people outside of Minnesota they think of three things: The Mall of America, cold weather and the Vikings. Without the Vikings we are just a cold state with a big Mall.”  Same could be said for Atlanta. Without our sports teams, we are a Southern State with a big airport that once hosted the Olympics.

Almost inevitably voters see the light and these stadium issues are resolved. Unfortunately, often there is undue angst in the process. The Cleveland Browns bolted to Baltimore because owner Art Modell could not get a new stadium. Five years later, the city of Cleveland, realizing the importance of an NFL franchise, built a new stadium and the new Browns were born. Same thing happened in St. Louis, where fans suffered through a multi-year hiatus from NFL football before the Rams came to town. Let’s hope Minnesota doesn’t suffer the same fate, and, for goodness sake, let’s hope Atlantans see the light and support the public-private concept for its new football stadium.

Quick Takes…No matter how you slice it, the number of injuries that have taken place in the NBA this post-season has to be related to the shortened schedule…When they say you never know what you will see when you go to a Major League Baseball game, they are certainly right. Who would have thought a game in early May would turn out be a classic, but the Braves 13-11 win over Philadelphia was certainly that, capped by a storybook walk-off homer by Chipper. Ah, the Grand Old Game.