The Atlanta Falcons' desired open-air stadium might wind up with a retractable roof if ongoing negotiations get bogged down.
While both the Falcons and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority say the focus remains on trying to reach a deal that would put the team in an outdoor stadium and preserve the nearby Georgia Dome for indoor events, neither side shuts the door on the option of an indoor/outdoor, retractable-roof facility.
That option would be much more expensive, could make the Dome unneeded and would represent a change in stance for the Falcons, who have expressed a preference for an open-air stadium without the added cost of a retractable roof.
A Georgia legislator briefed on the negotiations between the GWCC Authority, which oversees the state-owned complex that includes the Georgia Dome, and the Falcons told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week that a new stadium with a retractable roof and a natural grass playing surface is among the options being considered.
Another person familiar with the negotiations said a retractable roof could be pursued if it is determined that two stadiums –- the Dome plus a new open-air facility –- on GWCC property are not financially or logistically viable.
Asked for the Falcons' current position, team president Rich McKay said in an email: "A retractable roof stadium has always been one of the options, but our first preference has been to focus on an open-air stadium."
That remains the focus of talks between the Falcons and the GWCC, according to both parties.
"Our energy has been focused on, ‘Can you do two stadiums? And can they work financially for all concerned?'" GWCC Authority executive director Frank Poe said in an interview with the AJC this week.
He indicated those questions are still unanswered but said only a two-stadium scenario that preserves the Dome is currently being discussed. If at some point that is deemed too costly, then a one-stadium plan -- either a massively renovated Dome with a retractable roof or a new facility with a retractable roof -- would be considered, he said.
"No option has been taken off the table," Poe added in an emailed statement. "During the course of the last two-three years, the Authority has studied a number of possibilities for a successor stadium on our campus and will continue to do so.
"Over the past several weeks, our focus has been to identify and assess the components for development of a fiscally responsible business arrangement with the Falcons for an open-air stadium on our campus while maintaining the Georgia Dome. Should our situation change in this matter, we will keep you apprised."
Falcons owner Arthur Blank and team officials declined interview requests. But in an email McKay, the team's lead executive on the stadium issue, indicated that an open-air facility remains the preferred, but not the only, option.
"As we've said before, a variety of options have been on the table for quite some time, and none of them have been eliminated to date," McKay said in the email. "Our discussions have, to date, primarily focused on an open-air stadium. There are no new developments to share, so it's not appropriate for me to comment further than that."
If an open-air stadium is built as the Falcons' new home, the Georgia Dome would remain needed for events that require an indoor facility, such as the SEC football championship game, the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the NCAA basketball Final Four.
But if a new retractable-roof stadium were built, it could accommodate those events by closing the roof and could signal the demise of the Dome.
When the Falcons and the GWCC Authority began exploring the stadium issue several years ago, three options were kicked around: a remade Georgia Dome, a new open-air stadium, and a new retractable-roof stadium.
The GWCC Authority commissioned a feasibility study in 2010 that looked at the option of renovating the Georgia Dome and giving it a retractable roof. Although the idea has not been ruled out, the Falcons have made clear their desire to move into a new, more lucrative stadium when Georgia Dome bonds are paid off later this decade.
A subsequent GWCC-commissioned feasibility study looked at building an open-air stadium on GWCC property about a half-mile north of the Dome. The study pegged the cost at around $700 million. A feasibility study has not been done on a new retractable-roof stadium.
The GWCC Authority agreed a year ago to enter negotiations with the Falcons toward a possible memorandum of understanding on a stadium, which the team has described as a public-private partnership. Some funding would come from a continuation of the hotel-motel tax and some from the Falcons, but potential details have not been spelled out publicly.
Exactly how much a retractable roof would add to the cost of a new stadium is not known, although the 2010 feasibility study estimated the cost of putting a retractable roof on the Georgia Dome at $200 million, in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars for other changes.
Representatives of the Falcons and the GWCC Authority have met at least monthly for the past year and continue to do so. Poe has said that a major challenge has been finding a deal that would work for a new stadium and keep the Dome a "sustainable and viable" entity.
The Falcons are committed to playing in the Dome, which opened in 1992, until the bonds on the building are paid off. That is scheduled to be 2020 but likely will occur sooner, perhaps as early as 2017.
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