Posted on 07/02/2013 4:43:57 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
The biggest issue facing the Atlanta Falcons' eye-popping new football stadium: whether to build it just north of the current Georgia Dome, which would mean greater distance from hotels, the airport, transit, and the city's skyline, or just south, which would mean buying the land presently occupied by a pair of historic churches.
The team prefers the south site. Those churches also prefer the south site. Friendship Baptist, established in 1866 and the wellspring for both Morehouse and Spelman colleges, has rejected the city's offer of $13.5 million for the property, asking for nearly double that. Mayor Kasim Reed told 11 Alive he's upped the offer by $2 million. Meanwhile, the state is negotiating with Martin Luther King Drive's Mount Vernon Baptist.
While the houses of worship could stand to collect windfalls (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the combined land is worth just more than $2.2 million), they are of course not governed strictly by financials:
"I don't think [money] should even enter our decision-making. I really don't," said [Friendship] parishioner Juanita Jones Abernathy, whose late husband [Ralph David Abernathy] was a confidant of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "It's a landmark. I think it should remain. It's been there for generations, and it needs to be there for generations to come."
Considering Mt. Vernon Baptist's real estate is worth an amount similar to Friendship Baptist's, it could cost the city and state significantly more than $30 million to secure the land, which could raise the public cost of the stadium beyond the $200 million for which it's on the hook. A $30 million price tag would amount to 3.7 percent of the $800 million the team's committed to building the facility, and it wouldn't include the $50 million Arthur Blank's setting aside for undetermined neighborhood improvements as a part of the overhaul.
Can the Falcons show the city and state it's worth that much money to play a few blocks south? I don't know. I'm imagining the kind of church one could build with $20 million in one's pocket, but luckily, it's not my decision to make.
The Falcons stadium deal is, as far as stadium deals with public components go, a relatively good one for its city. That $200 million was earmarked for tourism anyway, and it's been argued that an even bigger public number would need to be spent in order to maintain the apparently far-more-aged-than-the-human-mind-can-fathom Georgia Dome. Land acquisition fees from the public's trusts will never be popular, though at least they'd be going to longtime local institutions and not some corporation, right?
The parties have until Aug. 1 to reach an accord. If none is found, the hemisphere's boldest stadium will be built just north of the team's current house.
Opinions?
How old is the Georgia Dome? What’s wrong with it? Seems like it was just built!
The NFL is a non-profit organization that specializes in enriching the lives of minorities. These racist Christians need to go!
I assure you that the membership demographics of Friendship Baptist Church make this a little bit of a delicate subject.
No clue. The Georgia Dome opened in 1992 and apparently, despite only being 21 years old, is now totally obsolete for the Dirty Birds and thus the taxpayers of Fulton County are going to be on the hook for $200m to get them a new nest.
}:-)4
That middle flower thingy is actually the moving roof.
There has never been a publicly funded pro sporting arena that has ever been a benefit for taxpayers - they are black holes of funds, provide exceptional profit for team owners with minimal return to taxpayers. The formulas utilized to determine the economic impact of a stadium / sports team on a municipality are flawed on a level that is staggering. Look at the outstanding debt on all pro stadiums and tell me they benefit taxpayers. We are old demolishing stadiums that sill have outstanding bond debt on them?!?
Looks like something a high-tech alien jumped out of, right before it went on a rampage and ate Atlanta.
Now, now. They have constantly reassured us that it all comes from hotel taxes and thus is paid by out of state visitor with no effect of the local economy.
Isn’t there some concern for the viability of the soft roof of the Georgia Dome..IIRC, there was considerable damage when a tornado hit a few years ago.
I’m not a big Arthur Blank fan. Why didn’t the taxpayers tell them to go eff themselves? Even the Miami Dade taxpayers said no to Super Bowl renovations to Joe Robbie (still call it that).
As of 2011, the GWCC (Which governs the Georgia Dome) had $112.6 million in debt still owed bonds from the construction of the Georgia dome, completed in 1992. They are about to double down and roll a hundred million of debt forward.
Not sure about the rest though.
Lucky for the churches they are on an “Protected list” else the city would “eminent domain” their A%%.
Otherwise I’m for the churches to squeeze the city and the falcons for all they’re worth.
(I love football but I’m tired of rich NFL teams soaking the local communities)
The team prefers the south site. Those churches also prefer the south site. Friendship Baptist, established in 1866 and the wellspring for both Morehouse and Spelman colleges, has rejected the city's offer of $13.5 million for the property, asking for nearly double that. Mayor Kasim Reed told 11 Alive he's upped the offer by $2 million. Meanwhile, the state is negotiating with Martin Luther King Drive's Mount Vernon Baptist.
Ping for later
Friendship Baptist is the oldest black Baptist congregation in Atlanta, established right after the Civil War. The building itself dates from around 1880. Morehouse College moved to Atlanta from Augusta at their invitation, and Spelman actually started in their basement.
The present church site is directly across the street from the college/Atlanta University complex (though closer to Morris Brown), so they will lose not only historic value but proximity to the school.
But sufficient money ought to allow them to move the building brick by brick and set it up again nearby (lots of vacant land in the vicinity).
The problem is Mt. Vernon Baptist, which is actually closer to the Dome (on the same side of MLK and contiguous w/ the Dome - FBC is across MLK). The building is pure 1960s and has no historical value whatsoever - but they are in the middle.
I drive right through that intersection on my way to work.
I support the separation of sports and state. The churches own the land, let the teams pay whatever the owners want.
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