Falcons Get High Marks After First Game In Mercedes-Benz Stadium

The Falcons played their first game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium last night against the Cardinals "after more than five years of preparation." The opening was "hugely anticipated," and it is "not a bad place to watch a game." About 70,000 fans "packed into the building," most wearing "huge grins and pointing camera phones in every direction." There is a "lot to marvel at" (HUFFINGTONPOST.com, 8/26). The Falcons lost 24-14, but the "attraction wasn't the game" (AJC.com, 8/26). Tickets distributed was "announced at 70,237, but about one-third of them didn’t attend" (AJC.com, 8/26). 

Meanwhile, the plan is to open the stadium's roof today to "continue adjusting and measuring its mechanization." Then the roof is "scheduled to be returned to the closed position" days before Thursday’s Jaguars-Falcons game, the stadium’s second event. Today’s planned move will "mark the fifth time the roof has been moved" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 8/27).