The Georgia World Congress Center Authority board yesterday "peppered Falcons officials with questions and comments" about the long delays to enter Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the CFP Championship, as well as "about ongoing problems with exiting the stadium after large events and with the sound system," according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. At yesterday’s meeting, which was "longer than customary, several GWCCA board members zeroed in on problems entering and leaving the stadium." Two board members "described the scene before the national title game as 'chaos' as fans endured long waits in a cold rain to enter the building." M-B Stadium GM Scott Jenkins told the board of plans to "install three additional sets of double doors and one overhead door as part of efforts to alleviate the congestion and slowness leaving the building." He said that the doors "would be installed in the next two weeks" and will cost $185,000. Jenkins said egress is "probably our No. 1 issue, and we are committed to getting it right." The egress issue "first surfaced at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff games on Labor Day weekend, and the sound system drew heavy complaints after the stadium’s first concert in October" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/31).
BABY STEPS: Jenkins also addressed the stadium's roof, saying that it was "opened with the push of a button for the first time recently." Jenkins: "We just did our first operational move, open and close, two weeks ago, automated. It’s still slow because we’re still in the training-wheel phase, but that’s progress because before that it was all manual construction moves.” The AJC's Tucker notes by one estimate, the roof "took about 90 minutes to open, still much too slow for routine game-day use and far short of the 12-minute target, but the progress from a manual to automated process encouraged stadium officials." With a "slight lull" in the stadium's events schedule, work on the roof "has accelerated." Jenkins: “They’re still working on it every day, every night. And it’s looking like by this summer we’ll have full operational use of the roof" (AJC.com, 1/31).
