Venue Detail
Atlanta Falcons
Revenues From Sports Venues Pro Facilities Report
January, 2010
Atlanta Falcons
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PO Box 6907 Lakewood Station, GA 30315-0907 Phone: 770-965-3185 Fax: 770-271-1221 URL: www.atlantafalcons.com Owner: Arthur Blank League: National Football League NFC South
Venue
Georgia Dome, 1 Georgia Dome Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30313-1504 Owner: Georgia World Congress Center Authority Managed by: Georgia World Congress Authority Built: 1992 Capacity: 21,570 Permanent concession stands: 40 Concessionaire: The Levy Restaurants Suite caterer: The Levy Restaurants Soft drink: Coca Cola Beer: Multiple
Ticket prices
Season tickets range from $250 to $990 Single tickets range from $45.00 to $114.00 2007 average attendance: 68,396 2008 average attendance: 64,065 2009 average attendance: 68,173
Luxury Suites
Quantity: 164 Term: 3 to 7 years Price: $52,000 to $175,000 Seats: 16 to 24 Includes: All tickets, parking passes. Party suite holds 50 people and rents for $12,000.
Club seats
Quantity: 4,600 Term: 3 to 7 years Price: $1,800 to $2,800 Includes: Tickets, access to private restaurant, in-seat wait staff.
Financing
The $214 million Venue was funded with $14 million in state money and $200 million in industrial revenue bonds. The bonds are supported by stadium revenues and a hotel/motel tax. Pct. public: 100
The Georgia Dome is the home of the NFL Falcons. The Falcons got their new home as part of the expansion for the 1996 summer Olympics.
The Falcons have begun planning for a new stadium they hope to occupy by 2015 or 2016.
Team owner Arthur Blank said the team is near the bottom of the NFL as a revenue producer, and the Georgia Dome, where the Falcons have played since 1992, will have some serious age on it in another decade.
Blank said the Falcons are spending close to 70 percent of their revenue on player costs, while the league's top-revenue team is spending around 40 percent.
Blank said the Falcons' financial arrangement with the state-owned Dome is not competitive with other NFL teams. But he added that even if the team had a better deal a decade from now, a new dome would be needed.
In 2007, the Falcons began upgrades to their current home. Among the more noticeable changes: two new LED video boards that run from end zone to end zone on both sides of the stadium; the elimination of 40 of the Dome's original 204 suites and their replacement by eight new “super-suites” that seat 57 to 96 people apiece; a sleeker and more spacious club lounge area; and newly outfitted suites.
The team also planned the replacement of 61,000 stadium seats, brighter concourse lighting and updated bathrooms.
The work cost $20.5 million – $13.5 million from the Authority and $7 million from the Falcons. The project was completed for the 2008-2009 season.
The renovations are being funded by Blank under an agreement with the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, operator of the Dome, that gives the team an increased cut from sales of suites, club seats and advertising.
Conceptually, the super suites are the biggest change.
Previously, all of the suites seated 16 or 24 people, with each suite typically bought by a single entity, usually a business. In the super suites, tickets are sold for individual seats, the concept being to offer a suite environment to individual purchasers.
Although not originally the target market, corporations – Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing, Verizon and AT&T – have purchased four of the eight super suites in their entirety. Two of the other super suites still have seats available for individual purchase, the Falcons said.
The renovations were timed to coincide with a key sales season for the Falcons, who act as the Dome's broker on premium seating. Suites and club seats are leased for multi-year terms, but an unusually large number of them were up for renewal this year. The Falcons and the GWCC Authority felt the suites and club seats could fetch higher prices with extensive remodeling.
The Falcons undertook a second, smaller round of Dome renovations in 2008 – about $5 million on updating the lower concourses and entry gates, replacing the end zone video boards with larger models and painting the exterior.
Longer term, Blank has suggested the Falcons will need a new stadium when their lease at the Dome expires. The lease obligates the Falcons to play there until the bonds that financed the Dome's construction are paid off. That is expected to be sometime between 2015 and 2020.
The team added an Owner's Club for 225 fans in 2005. Membership is $5,500 for new customers. A super suite sells individual seats at $4,000 per seat.
Ticket bar code scanners were installed in the Georgia Dome in 2001, allowing fans to move through turnstiles without the need for ticket takers. The $350,000 system gives stadium officials an easy way of counting attendees and moving fans into the stadium faster.
The system opens the door for fans to buy tickets by computer and print them on home computers. A bar code on the tickets can then be scanned to give the fan admission to the game.
The Dome also sells some of its own signage packages for $5,000 to $1 million on terms of three to 10 years. (Facilities, Financial, Professional Sports, Venue)