Falcons owner Arthur Blank boldly details new stadium plans

ATLANTA — Falcons owner Arthur Blank made a bold statement Wednesday morning about the downtown stadium that’s scheduled to open in 2017. “Folks who have come

Thomas Lake | Aug 20, 2014

Falcons owner Arthur Blank boldly details new stadium plans /

ATLANTA — Falcons owner Arthur Blank made a bold statement Wednesday morning about the downtown stadium that’s scheduled to open in 2017.

“Folks who have come in and studied our plans and what have you, from the NFL, who actually looked at stadiums and arenas around the world, believe it’s going to be the finest sports entertainment facility, not only in the United States, but you know, potentially in the world,” he told Atlanta magazine editor Steve Fennessy in an interview on stage at a charity breakfast.

Preliminary renderings show a stadium with a window to the Atlanta skyline and a roof that slides open to form an eight-pointed star. Documents handed out at Wednesday’s event describe a facility that will use captured rainwater to help grow organic produce for use in food service at games. The brochure says the stadium “will incorporate raised planter beds and edible landscaping, including berries and fruit trees.”

NEWCOMB: Inside the $1.2 billion stadium the Falcons will share with an MLS franchise

In addition to hosting the Falcons, the stadium will be home to a new Major League Soccer franchise that will begin play in 2017.

“We’re up to over 14,000 deposits on season-ticket holders already,” Blank said. “And that’s two-and-a-half years before we play, which is pretty impressive. MLS is shocked by that.”

MLS in Atlanta: The $1.2 billion stadium Blank's new team will share with the Falcons

All renderings courtesy of 360 Architecture

Published Aug 20, 2014

THOMAS LAKE

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Thomas Lake is a senior writer for Sports Illustratedwho specializes in long-form storytelling. His first story for the magazine, "2 on 5," won the Henry Luce Award for most outstanding story published by Time Inc. in 2008. Four of his stories have been reprinted in the annual Best American Sports Writing collection, and another one, "The Boy Who Died of Football," was anthologized in the book Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. Lake also cites "Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?," about Jordan's forsaken high school coach; "The Legacy of Wes Leonard," about a high school basketball player who died from an undiagnosed heart condition minutes after making a game-winning shot; and "The Boy They Couldn't Kill," about the surviving son of former NFL player Rae Carruth—as among his most memorable SI pieces. Before SI, Lake covered six beats and photographed car wrecks for the The Press-Sentinel in Jesup, Ga.; worked on the education beat for The Salem News in Massachusetts; wrote features for The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville; covered crime for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida; and served as a senior editor for Atlanta Magazine. He has an associate's degree in general studies from Herkimer County Community College in upstate New York and bachelor's degree in communication arts from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he ran cross-country and met his wife, Sara. They live in metro Atlanta with their two children.