Falcons fans "lashed out Thursday at the team’s prices for personal seat licenses in the new stadium under construction downtown," according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. The Falcons plan to "begin club-seat PSL sales Monday after receiving unanimous approval from the Georgia World Congress Center Authority board Thursday of prices ranging from $10,000 to $45,000." Falcons officials "didn’t seem surprised by widespread negative reaction." The prices set by the Falcons so far "cover 7,700 club seats," about 11% of the 71,000-seat stadium. The team said that all other seats sold as season tickets "also will require PSLs, but those prices won’t be set until summer." Tucker notes those prices "are expected to fall at various levels below $10,000." Falcons President & CEO Rich McKay: "I think you’ll find as we move into the (non-club) seat rollout that we have tried to be very sensitive to making sure the prices are fair and inclusive and that those people that have been our loyal fans have an opportunity to be in this new stadium. We want them in this stadium." Legends VP/Global Sales Michael Drake, whose firm the Falcons hired to handle PSL sales, said that lower-bowl ticketholders "are particularly impacted because of a trend in newer NFL stadiums to move club seats closer to the field from their traditional location in the middle bowl." Still, some Falcons fans said that the PSLs "will push them out of the type of close-to-the-action seats they have long enjoyed" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/9).
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: In Atlanta, Michael Cunningham notes the Falcons "say they are using the Ravens as the model for their 'restructured' front office but whatever it is that [Owner] Arthur Blank just announced doesn’t look like what the Ravens do." Blank seems to "want to be the quasi-head of the Falcons’ football operations with the yet-to-be-hired head coach reporting to him and not" GM Thomas Dimitroff. The Ravens have coach John Harbaugh going to GM Ozzie Newsome on "major football personnel matters, and Newsome making the decisions." The Falcons "will have the new coach bypassing Dimitroff and going straight to Blank for these kinds of issues and Blank making the call." Cunningham: "I don't see how it can work" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/9).
