The NFL’s stadium building craze is in full force and it looks like the latest gridiron masterpiece will be making its way to downtown Atlanta. Team officials announced yesterday that 360 Architecture presented its’ vision to the Georgia World Authority on Monday and the plans were approved. The mock-ups are nothing short of extraordinary.
NFL Stadiums are popping up with more frequency these days, with new Cowboys Stadium and most recently, the Levi’s Stadium that the 49ers will move into shortly after the 2013 season. The new stadiums will bring many benefits to their local communities.
The Cowboys hosted the Super Bowl soon after the new stadium opened in 2009 and the 49ers have already been awarded Super Bowl 50 in 2016, even before the cement has dried in Santa Clara, California. They beat out the Dolphins after that team failed to secure public funding for stadium upgrades that would have improved their bid.
This is no doubt that the Falcons hope to be equally successful in attracting the SuperBowl. The city of Atlanta is already hosting the SEC Football Championship, the Chick-Fil-A kickoff classic and bowl game as well as being one of the rotational cities for the SEC Basketball tournament and NCAA Basketball games.
Some of the unique characteristics of the Falcons’ proposed stadium design are a retractable roof in a corner of the stadium that gives fans a view of the Atlanta skyline from inside the arena. The design captures a lot of daylight along the top, something missing at the current Georgia Dome.
The new stadium would also have a huge 360-degree high definition LED Twitter feed around the stadium, shown in the photo below.
While the Falcons haven’t articulated their intentions for the LED Twitter feed, there are sure to be numerous ways to utilize the technology by the time the park would open.
The proposed project is a bit premature since no land has yet been identified for the stadium. And the Georgia Dome lease doesn’t expire until 2020. But it looks like Atlanta has cleared the first (of many) hurdles in making a new stadium a reality in the future.