After almost two years of negotiations with the Atlanta Falcons about a new downtown stadium, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority has called a special meeting of its board Monday morning to review and vote on the framework of a possible deal.
The board will consider a non-binding, 24-page sheet covering terms that have been negotiated by representatives of the Falcons and the GWCCA. The document covers questions including who would own it (the state), who would operate it (the Falcons) and how it would be paid for (a combination of hotel-motel tax money, Falcons funds and possibly the sale of personal seat licenses).
“The board will be called upon to vote on a term sheet that for the most part they’ve seen and reviewed (previously),” GWCCA executive director Frank Poe said Friday.
Finalizing the term sheet would be an important step in the process but would leave much work to be done before an ultimate deal is reached. Many details and some complex issues, such as selection of the site, would remain. But the term sheet would be the basis for negotiation early next year of a more definitive — and binding — agreement called a memorandum of understanding.
“The term sheet is an important piece because it sets, really, the sort of foundational business relationship with the team that is carried into” more definitive agreements, Poe said. “It’s basically setting the skeleton, if you will – the framework. And you build muscle on that as you go through each step.
“It’s not the definitive step, but it is an important step. If you don’t have that framework in place, then you’re never going to get to the point of a definitive agreement.”
Poe said the more detailed memorandum of understanding “is a lot more serious document … the one that really sets the partnership and locks it in.”
Falcons spokeswoman Kim Shreckengost said the team would not comment on the matter until Monday.
A notice was posted at the GWCCA’s administrative offices Friday to announce the special called meeting, which has only the one agenda item.
The proposed deal calls for the construction of a retractable-roof stadium on one of two sites near the current Georgia Dome. One site is just south of the Dome, and the other is about one-half mile north. The Dome would be demolished after the new facility opens.
Cost estimates for the proposed stadium have ranged from $948 million to $1.032 billion.
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