Local

Atlanta Under Pressure to Build New Stadium as Los Angeles Expresses Interest in Falcons

By ABS Contributor | Published on January 29, 2013 | Updated on January 30, 2013 8:04 PM EST

Comments (0) Add ABS as a preferred source on Google i

As Falcons owner Arthur Blank and government officials are pushing a new downtown Atlanta retractable-roof stadium for the team, reports have surfaced that the city of Los Angeles has expressed interest in acquiring the Atlanta Falcons.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has warned city council members that business interests in LA want to move the Falcons to the west coast, reports Fox 5 TV.

Falcon’s owner Arthur Blank reportedly shared that information with top city and state officials in their discussions about financing a new stadium in downtown Atlanta.

Two council members who met with Reed told FOX 5 about the private discussions.

Reed called in council members one at a time to tell them that the city needs to take a more aggressive lead in the public financing portion of the proposed stadium.

The Falcons and the National Football League would cover two-thirds of the stadium’s cost, with public dollars on the hook for the remaining amount. There has been no word about financing for proposed downtown infrastructure renovations that have been backed by Reed. The mayor estimated that project would push the cost from $946 million to $1.2 billion.

According to previous reports, key business terms for a new stadium include:

The Georgia World Congress Center Authority, a state agency, would own the stadium.

The Falcons would operate the stadium under a 30-year license agreement, with options to renew for an additional 15 years.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way