Falcons still moving to Doraville?

[DeadInSuburbia]

Originally Posted by spotch

Couple articles in the AJC today about it.
‘New arena is vital’ for Atlanta Super Bowl | Georgia Elections News


This is the first I've heard, and I think it's *ridiculous*. If getting the superbowl means building football team owners a new stadium every 15-20 years, then they can keep it. States across the country are facing insolvency, education cuts, social services cuts, tax hikes, and on top of all this we're talking about bailing on an *awesome* dome because a high mucky muck in the NFL likes a cool breeze on his face? F*** him.

^^ This.

I've seen games recently in the SUperdome in New Orleans, the one from the '70s. They spent a couple hundred million to update it after Katrina, but it didn't require 800m->1bil to replace. THAT was, ironically, smart.

The mere idea that a stadium built in 1992 is "too old" is laughably ridiculous.

[americancoffee]

Exactly - the idea that it is absolutely paramount that we build a whole new stadium for some ball game is total bs. Talk about a misplacement of priorities. I have a feeling most of the city (and the metro) would feel the same way - we need to let our voices be heard if this comes into being.

[AcidSnake]

I just don't get how we Georgians/Americans fight over subsidizing or not subsidizing mass transit and healthcare which actually helps people, but take a hands-off approach to the notion of subsidizing the NFL. If the NFL is a business why can't it suppport itself on its own merits? Why would it even require taxpayer dollars or government bonds at all? Wasn't Phillips Arena built with private dollars?

Where are the conservative free-market supporters in this conversation? They whine over having to support MARTA and Grady Hospital with extreme consistency but are AWOL for this situation.

I'll stop. Sometimes I think that the more information the internet reveals to my generation about the mindsets & logic of the people in this world especially the older generations, the more I realize that a lot of folks can be full of crap.

[arjay57]

AcidSnake, great points. The difference, in my opinion, is that football is a religion in a way that mass transit is not. Football appeals to millions who rarely if ride the bus. If you did a metro wide poll on whether to keep the Falcons or MARTA, I'm not sure who would win.

[AcidSnake]

Over the many years I have lived here to be intimately familiar with the lopsided priorities of your typical Georgia citizen, odds are in favor of the pigskin, I would think.

Oh well.

Originally Posted by arjay57

If you did a metro wide poll on whether to keep the Falcons or MARTA, I'm not sure who would win.

[arjay57]

Maybe we could encourage more Falcons players and cheerleaders to ride the bus and make it seem more glamorous.