Saturday didn't go exactly as I had hoped. The game between the University of Georgia and Alabama w

Saturday didn’t go exactly as I had hoped. atlantis hotel casino The game between the University of Georgia and Alabama was one for the ages.  Alas, this was not to be Georgia’s year.  I was in 6 th grade the last time it was our year.  My incoming gray hair reminds me that was a long time ago.  As a true fan, I will keep waiting, and keep cheering.
The day at the Georgia Dome was special.  For the first time, I was a guest in one of the Dome’s suites to watch the game, courtesy atlantis hotel casino of a great friend who is someone I know well outside of politics.  These suites are much of the focus in the desire to replace the current facility with a new one, though the official reason is so that the Falcons can play under a retractable roof.
Retractable roofs do not improve a team’s cash flow, however.  More luxury suites which cost even more will.  Georgia taxpayers are being asked to back $300 Million in new bonds that will be paid with Atlanta Hotel Motel tax dollars between now and 2050.  They’re also being asked to waive sales taxes on construction materials.  And to buy the land for the new stadium.  And to make traffic infrastructure atlantis hotel casino improvements around the area of construction.  A half billion dollars is a nice, round number that taxpayers should atlantis hotel casino use when looking at their total contribution for this gift to the Falcons and their owner, Arthur Blank.
As evidenced by Saturday’s game, the Falcons are not the only team that uses the Dome. The SEC Championship game is one of the highest profile events held there, with a contract to continue doing so until 2017 – conveniently the time that the Falcons would like their new home ready.
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive gave glowing praise to the existing facility this past week in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying “the Georgia Dome has been terrific for us. The facility has been good and the Dome staff is really superb. atlantis hotel casino And having the proximity atlantis hotel casino of the World Congress Center so that we can have our FanFare running in conjunction with the game, that has become very popular. It’s that, plus the fact Atlanta is an easy city to get to. With the development of Centennial Park and all the surrounding events and places that people can go, it has worked out extremely well for us. And we are looking forward to continuing on, even beyond our current contract.”
The AJC’s natural follow-up was regarding his opinion of the plans for a new stadium and extending the SEC’s contract there.  He said that once the plans are finalized they will resume discussions, adding “we’ve not been unhappy at all with the current atlantis hotel casino Dome. But we like the fact that the new stadium is projected to be in essentially the same footprint with the World Congress Center. It reaffirms the fact that Atlanta is committed to staying at the forefront and therefore even makes the game more attractive for us there.”
Supporters and detractors are likely to use these words as their own, as Slive is a good politician and understands he’s wading into an area of controversy.  Of note is that his primary concern – and strengths of the current setup – is the overall logistics of Atlanta and the Dome/Georgia World Congress atlantis hotel casino Center campus.  While a new stadium would be shiny and a presumed upgrade, the package offered by Atlanta includes a relatively new Domed Stadium attached to a world class convention center, atlantis hotel casino all surrounded by a convention and tourism district with restaurants and attractions for out of town guests.
The SEC, Georgia State’s Panthers, and many other groups use the Dome throughout the year.  It is part of the World Congress Center complex and as such, is an integral part of Atlanta’s convention business.
The case has not  been made, however, that committing a half billion dollars of taxpayers’ funds to replace one part of this complex with a similar building that functions largely the same for most spectators will provide more benefit to the city and state than it will cost.
Beware of rosy estimates that place the “value” of a new stadium as economic activity that we already have, with an existing facility.  I’ve spent a lot of time in the cheap seats, and one Saturday afternoon in the nicest of them.  What we have pleases the SEC and every other user of the Dome.  Additional taxpayer funds are not warranted for a replacement at this time.
Can t they just ship the whole butt-ugly circus tent somewhere other than Atlanta? How about Wayne or Randolf County, some BF place like that? Those good folk down there could sure use the kinds of jobs that come with a sports arena, like selling overpriced weiners and watery beer to people who want to watch other humans fetch balls.
There d be plenty of parking somewhere other than The Gulch and the Castleberry district too, and I wouldn t have to get routed right into Joe Tailgater Blow s stinky, smoking grill just trying to get home from work.
Traffic on game days around the Dome (the Dome we got now or a Super Deluxe Model, doesn t matter to me) is beyond terrible. Why do we always atlantis hotel casino have to have stuff that clogs-up our streets like the Varsity atlantis hotel casino clogs-up arteries?
If you are going to make 30,000 the marker and have it in the middle of nowhere, then why not say somewhere like Dawson County (Pop. 20,600), Pickens County (Pop. 29,600), Butts County (Pop. 23,500), or Lamar County (Pop. 18,300)? After all, at least they are all in the Atlanta area and as we all know, you people love to keep everything Atlanta-centered anyways.
atlantis hotel casino The case has not been made, however, that committing a half billion dollars of taxpayers’ funds to replace one part of this complex with a similar building that functions largely the same for most spectators will provide more benefit to the city and state than it will cost.
The case has not been made because there is no case to be made for committing at least half-a-billion dollars for replacing a perfectly good Georgia Dome that has quickly become obsolete in the current increasingly absurd NFL stadium arms race.
Replacing atlantis hotel casino a 20-year-old Georgia atlantis hotel casino Dome isn t about need, it s about want. It s about staying one step ahead of a hard-charging Jerry Jones and a wickedly ambitious Dallas establishment that would quite literally sell their own mothers (and kipnap your mothers and sell them, too) to get the SEC Championship Game at Jerryworld.
20 years ago when the Georgia Dome opened, Atlanta was one of the very few games in town in terms of being a then up-and-coming landlocked big city with a then brand spankin new state-of-the-art football stadium and was almost literally the only game in town in terms of hosting an event as big as the SEC Championship Game, an event whose popularity has since skyrocketed through the roof into the stratosphere and has by far unquestionably become one of the biggest events in all of American sports.
Screw the NFL Falcons, even though the Georgia Dome is obviously still more than serviceable in the realm of rational thought, the powers-that-be that in the Atlanta establishment are not going to take even the slightest chance of losing the behemoth SEC Championship Game to a ruthlessly hard-charging Dallas establishment which features the relentless Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the 105,000-capacity Jerryworld (Cowboys Stadium).
Simply put, losing atlantis hotel casino the SEC Championship Game would be akin to a city hosting the Super Bowl every year and losing it, seeing as how increasingly financially important the game of football and the Southeastern Conference have become to college athletics.
As the annual atlantis hotel casino host of the SEC Championship Game, Atlanta has become the most important city in a conference in the SEC that has become the most important conference in a sport in college football that has become the most important sport in the world of college athletics and the powers-that-be in the Atlanta establishment are not about to in any way risk losing that ultra-important social status to Dallas, a city that so desperately wants to take Atlanta s place atop the world of college athletics atlantis hotel casino and transportation logistics.
This stadium issue isn t about rationality or practicality, it s about being #1 in social and financial status in an increasingly high-stakes competition with highly-aspirational Sunbelt competitors atlantis hotel casino like Dallas (particularly Dallas, a city that has let it be known in no uncertain terms that they are out for Atlanta s blood).
I admit, I don t love this project. atlantis hotel casino I support it because in this current economic and political environment, this is the only big project likely to come to Atlanta anytime soon. The longer atlantis hotel casino Atlanta does nothing, the further it falls behind.
What city does love having a filthy rich billionaire put a gun to their head and threaten to move their NFL team to Los Angeles unless they replace a perfectly serviceable two-decade old stadium with a needlessly unnecessary billion-dollar stadium loaded with a zillion luxury suites for the super-wealthy and uber-connected privileged few? Especially when there are so many other pressing needs that should seemingly be addressed first and foremost (infrastructure, atlantis hotel casino schools, public safety, etc).
And this starts the circular arguments going again. Prove to me that the $300 million from this revenue source is going to go towards infrastructure, schools, public safety, etc. Or that if the legislature shoots down this project, they are going to replace it with $300, let alone $300 million, for anything.
Funny that the Occupy rhetoric that is despised in other contexts is embraced in this one. When did all these Romney atlantis hotel casino voters atlantis hotel casino turn class warfare populists? atlantis hotel casino Most Falcons fans won t ever be able to sit in a luxury box. Big deal. How many inner city Atlanta school atlantis hotel casino kids can afford atlantis hotel casino to go the Georgia aquarium at $50 a pop? Maybe we should atlantis hotel casino use the GWCC hotel/motel tax to subsidize field trips to the aquarium for APS kids getting free or reduced lunches instead because it is educational ? See if Neal Boortz would like that idea.
I will back a more worthy project when the powers that be who oppose atlantis hotel casino this identify s