Two years from their first game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Atlanta Falcons have surpassed $100 million in sales of personal seat licenses.
The Falcons have sold PSLs for 12,997 seats for a total of $116.7 million, according to figures obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the Georgia World Congress Center Authority through an open-records request.
The sales figures underscore the substantial role the seat licenses — one-time fees for the right to buy Falcons season tickets over the next three decades — will play in helping pay for the new downtown stadium’s construction cost. But the figures also reveal that the vast majority of seats in the 71,000-seat stadium are yet to be sold.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you this is going to be a layup because we all know these things are never easy,” said Michael Drake, vice president of Legends Global Sales, the firm handling seat-license sales for the Falcons. “But to be this far along with two years left … we feel really good about it.”
Drake said current sales figures are actually higher than the GWCCA’s records show. The Falcons attribute the difference to a one-month lag before team officials are required to submit signed seat-license contracts to the state agency. The Falcons declined to provide their figures to the AJC.
Proceeds from the seat-license sales go toward the cost of building the $1.4 billion stadium, which is under construction next to the Georgia Dome, but will not affect the amount of taxpayer money for the project.
The Falcons have been marketing the PSLs to the team’s current season-ticket holders since early this year, starting with approximately 7,500 seats in the premium “club” sections in January and moving on to 60,000-plus non-club seats in June. PSL prices range from $10,000 to $45,000 for club seats — defined as seats with access to lounges and other amenities — and from $500 to $5,500 for non-club seats.
According to the figures obtained from the GWCCA, which will own the stadium, the Falcons have sold 3,906 club seats for total PSL fees of $85.3 million and 9,091 non-club seats for $31.4 million.
Drake said the $10,000 seat licenses, located in the new stadium’s middle level, are sold out. He said the $45,000 licenses, in the lower bowl between the 45-yard lines, are virtually sold out along the home sideline but still available along the visitor’s sideline.
Drake, who previously worked on similar sales programs for the Dallas Cowboys’ and San Francisco 49ers’ stadiums, said the Falcons have sold a larger percentage of their club seats than either of those projects had sold at the same point.
Almost all of the seat-license buyers have financed their purchases, either without interest until 2017 or with interest for up to an additional 10 years, making down payments of 10 to 33 percent. Some $17.3 million in down payments had been collected as of Aug. 31, according to the GWCCA.
Sales representatives have completed one-on-one meetings with season-ticket holders whose current seats are in the Georgia Dome’s lower and middle levels, Drake said. Meetings with upper-bowl season-ticket holders started about a week ago and will continue for another six weeks or so, he said. After that, sales will open to new customers throughout the building.
One recent buyer is Marty Zobel, a 35-year Falcons season-ticket holder who has four seats on the first row at the 50-yard line in the Georgia Dome.
He said he was priced out of a comparable location in the new stadium because such seats will be in the most expensive club section with PSLs of $45,000 each. Instead, he said, “I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with the purchase of just two seats” on the third row between the 15- and 20-yard lines for PSL fees of $5,500 each.
“Maybe I’m being unrealistic, but I certainly don’t feel like my 35 years of being a loyal season-ticket holder has been adequately recognized,” Zobel said by email. “It seems to me that anybody who’s willing to pony up the bucks can now move to the front of the line.”
Among the long-time season-ticket holders who decided against buying seats in the new stadium because of the PSLs is Kathy Cyran, an avid Falcons fan since the 1960s.
“I am always going to be a fan; that’s not a problem,” she said. “… (But) when I have to pay for the right to buy tickets for a seat, I think there’s something wrong there. I just have a personal issue with paying that PSL.”
Bonds backed by Atlanta hotel-motel taxes will provide $200 million toward the cost of building the stadium, while the NFL will fund another $200 million. The Falcons are responsible for the remaining $1 billion, but that will be reduced by whatever amount is raised from the PSL sales.
The naming-rights deal with Mercedes-Benz, other sponsorships and suite sales also will help the Falcons fund their portion.
PSL buyers will have to pay the Falcons’ season-ticket price each year to retain their seats and will have the right to sell their licenses to other parties.
The Falcons have said all seats sold as season tickets will require license fees but have declined to say how much money they expect the PSLs to generate. Calculations by the AJC indicate the total could approach $300 million if the stadium sells out.
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