One year into sales of personal seat licenses for their new stadium, the Falcons have sold about 27,000 seats — roughly 40 percent of the non-suite seats in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
That leaves the Falcons with the majority of seats in the stadium to attempt to sell in the 19 months remaining before the team’s first game there.
The latest sales figures were obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, a state agency, under an open-records request.
The figures, which cover sales contracts submitted to the GWCCA by the Falcons through Dec. 31, show that the personal seat licenses — one-time fees for the right to buy season tickets — are bringing in substantial revenue toward construction of the stadium. But they also underscore the fact that a significant number of current Falcons season-ticket holders have declined to buy PSLs.
According to the figures obtained from the GWCCA, the Falcons have sold 26,617 seat licenses for a total of $153.8 million. That includes 4,259 club seats for a total of $93.5 million and 22,358 non-club seats for $60.3 million.
Contracts for about 4,200 seat licenses were submitted in November and December, with about 4,000 of those for non-club seats, according to the latest GWCCA figures.
A 30-day lag in submitting contracts means current sales figures likely are slightly higher than the GWCCA numbers reflect.
The Falcons began selling PSLs in January 2015. Sales were limited to current season-ticket holders until mid-November, when they were opened to the general public.
The PSL prices range from $10,000 to $45,000 for club seats — defined as seats that include access to exclusive dining spaces and other amenities — and from $500 to $5,500 for non-club seats.
The Falcons have said PSLs will be required for all seats in the 71,000-seat stadium that are sold as season tickets, with the exception of about 5,000 seats in suites. But the team has declined to say exactly how many seats are for sale as season tickets, noting that an undisclosed number of seats for sponsors, visiting team officials and other business purposes are withheld from the inventory.
The Falcons’ plan for this year is to continue seat-license sales to the general public while also revisiting season-ticket holders who declined to buy during the seat-relocation phase last year, according to Michael Drake, vice president of Legends Global Sales, the firm handling the sales program for the team.
“We will always continue to revisit those that didn’t buy the first go-round,” Drake said. “It’s going out to the (new business) market, but we will continue to … talk to those season-ticket holders who didn’t jump on it at first.”
Drake said some sections of the new stadium are sold out, mentioning the upper-bowl end-zone seats ($500 PSL) and middle-bowl club seats ($10,000 PSL).
“We’re right in plan, right on line, with how this timeline breaks out and where we’re going,” Drake said.
The stadium, under construction next to the Georgia Dome, is slated to open in 2017.
Down payments of 10 percent are required on the PSLs, and the remainder is payable without interest by 2017 or with interest over 10 additional years. Down payments totaling $21.7 million have been collected, according to the figures obtained from the GWCCA.
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