Georgia World Congress Center Authority Exec Dir Frank Poe yesterday said that the “Falcons’ desire for an open-air stadium ‘presents a number of complex issues’ that are still being sorted out,” according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. The GWCC Authority, the state agency that operates the Georgia Dome, "is 14 months into negotiations with the Falcons about a possible new downtown stadium that would be built with a combination of public and private funds.” Poe said that while the Falcons “want to play outdoors, other events that the state and city have no intention of sacrificing -- the SEC football championship game, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, the Chick-fil-A Bowl and college basketball’s Final Four -- ‘are not going to play outdoors.’” That leads “to two options: a dual-stadium setup where the Georgia Dome and a nearby open-air facility would operate in tandem, or a single retractable-roof stadium that accommodates indoor and outdoor events.” Poe said that “both models remain on the table.” When asked about “a one-stadium approach of massively renovating the Dome and installing a retractable roof,” Poe “did not rule that out.” But he said that “such an undertaking could close the Dome for two years, forcing Falcons games and other events to temporary homes and costing both the team and the GWCC 'a big number' in lost revenue” (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 4/12).
