NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in Atlanta for a meeting of the league’s owners Tuesday, said he would advise the city to bid for another Super Bowl if a new stadium is built here. But he cautioned that the competition would be tough.
“The issue that we always raise — and this came up in Minnesota [where] they’re building a closed-roof stadium, it appears, and have the same interest — [is that] the reality of what’s happening is it is becoming more and more competitive to host a Super Bowl,” Goodell said.
“But these stadiums are our stage, and they are one of the key components in hosting a Super Bowl, along with having, obviously, the infrastructure. So certainly, if [a new stadium] gets done [here], we’d encourage them to apply.”
Atlanta has hosted two Super Bowls, in 1994 and 2000, and failed in subsequent bids for the game, in part because of the ice storm that virtually shut down the city before the 2000 event. The NFL, though, often awards the Super Bowl to new stadiums.
The Falcons and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority have been in negotiations for more than a year about a new downtown stadium. The parties last month abandoned talks about an open-air stadium, which would have operated in tandem with the Georgia Dome, and turned their focus to a retractable-roof stadium, which would replace the Dome.
Goodell said the league’s owners, at their regularly scheduled spring meeting Tuesday, heard updates about four ongoing stadium construction projects — new homes for the Vikings and 49ers and renovations/expansions of the Steelers’ and Packers’ stadiums.
The owners did not get an update on the Falcons’ stadium efforts “because no action was required,” Goodell said.
“I’ve had some informal conversations with both [Falcons owner] Arthur [Blank] and [team president] Rich [McKay],” Goodell said. “I think it’s like any of our stadium projects — there’s a process of working through [and] finding a solution that works in the community that will also work for the club. Those discussions seem to be going along in a way where there’s good give-and-take.”
Blank, during a break in Tuesday’s meetings, said the Falcons are “making progress” toward a stadium deal.
“We have a great relationship with the Congress Center, and we’re getting support from the right kind of political leadership and the public,” Blank said. “We’re trying to please a lot of stakeholders — the fans, the communities, our franchise. Anybody who’s involved, we’re trying to get a win-win-win situation. That’s a lot of people to win with. At the end of the day, I know we’re going to come out with a great solution that everybody will be happy with.
”It’s not an easy process, and it shouldn’t be an easy process. There’s a lot involved financially. There’s a lot involved community-wise, politically, personally. ... It’s a big project, so we need to do it correctly. It’s not a matter of speed.”
Staff writer Jeff Schultz contributed to this article.
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