Falcons President & CEO Rich McKay yesterday said that the team will "offer financial incentives to motivate contractors" to finish its new downtown stadium ahead of its currently scheduled March '17 opening, according to Leon Stafford of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. McKay said that the deal with its construction team "offers money if specific goals are met ahead of the deadline," and that "meeting the opening date helps Georgia Dome legacy events, such as the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the SEC Championship, plan for the move to a new facility." While McKay did not give the value of the incentives, he said that they are "typical in a large construction project." Early projections "pegged the cost [of] the project" at between $948M-$1B. McKay said that now that the project is "getting more detailed, that could change." The Georgia World Congress Center Authority yesterday "approved hiring Holder, Hunt, H.J. Russell and C.D. Moody construction companies as the project’s general contractor" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/19).
