The SEC is deep into negotiations toward a 10-year deal to play the league’s football championship game in the new Falcons stadium, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
An outline of the proposed deal, which has not been completed, calls for the game to move into the $1.4 billion retractable-roof stadium in 2017 and to be played there annually through 2026, securing one of Atlanta’s signature sports events.
“We’re not in position to really comment right now, except to say that we are in negotiations and we are encouraged by where we are and certainly anticipate continuing those negotiations,” SEC associate commissioner Herb Vincent said.
Saturday’s SEC Championship game between Alabama and Missouri will mark the 21st consecutive year the event has been played at the Georgia Dome, where it will remain through 2016. The Dome will be demolished when the new stadium, which is under construction on an adjacent site, opens in 2017.
It’s no surprise that the SEC intends to move its title game next door, rather than to a different city, but a 10-year contract would be longer than sports leagues typically sign on such deals.
The proposal reflects the SEC’s desire to have its marquee events at regular sites. The league last year agreed to play its men’s basketball tournament in Nashville, Tenn., in nine of 11 seasons from 2015-25.
The documents obtained by the AJC under Georgia’s Open Records Act reveal long-running and continuing negotiations among the SEC, Falcons and Georgia World Congress Center Authority, a state agency.
A draft of a term sheet left blank the amount of the fee that the SEC would pay to use the new stadium, but in an email to SEC commissioner Mike Slive, Falcons president Rich McKay wrote “you still have my assurance” the fee won’t change “in any significant fashion from your historical number.”
The SEC will pay a fee of $355,189 for use of the Georgia Dome for Saturday’s game, according to its current contract. That fee will increase 5 percent annually for 2015 and 2016, as it did each of the past four years.
Documents and emails exchanged by the Falcons and the SEC provide insight into one aspect of the Falcons’ strategy for selling personal seat licenses in the new stadium: extra perks for those who pay the biggest bucks.
Most PSLs — one-time fees for the right to purchase Falcons season tickets — won’t give the holder access to SEC Championship game tickets, but some particularly pricey PSLs would.
The proposed term sheet says holders of “VVIP” seat licenses would be entitled to purchase 1,000 lower-level tickets in the club section for the SEC title game, 500 on each side of the stadium. In addition, the Falcons requested that up to 5,200 SEC tickets be available to “non-VVIP” club-seat license holders.
“These additional tickets would be distributed throughout the building at the SEC’s discretion with the hope that the SEC will take into consideration these (PSL) buyers made a significant investment in the stadium,” according to notes from a meeting earlier this year involving the SEC, Falcons and GWCCA.
Seat licenses are a significant part of the Falcons’ plan for paying for the stadium. The Falcons on Tuesday unveiled an updated stadium budget that added another $200 million to the cost. The team plans to begin selling PSLs early next year but hasn’t revealed prices, which have run into the tens of thousands of dollars for prime seats in other recently built NFL stadiums.
Aside from the seats made available to some PSL holders, “the SEC will control all other ticket sales,” according to the draft of the proposed agreement. “All ticket revenues belong to the SEC.”
Among many other issues covered, the Falcons pledge to “use their best efforts” to work with the NFL to avoid scheduling Falcons home games on the Monday or Thursday preceding the SEC game.
The SEC Championship game began in 1992, matching the first-place teams from the then-new Eastern and Western divisions. It was played in Birmingham, Ala., for two years before moving to the Georgia Dome in 1994. The game has sold out every year in Atlanta except 1995.
The SEC has been kept in the loop for several years by the GWCCA, which operates the Dome, on plans for the new stadium. The GWCCA will own the stadium, while the Falcons will operate it.
“We’ve been real encouraged by the concepts that we’ve heard about and seen. It looks like it’s going to be a tremendous stadium,” Vincent said. “It looks like they are leaving no stone unturned in creating a great experience, not only for the teams but for the fans and everybody associated with the games that are going to be contested there.”
