New Atlanta Falcons stadium’s roof has some issues, opening may be delayed

The new Atlanta Falcons stadium was nearly guaranteed to be complete in time. Construction is so close to complete. Victory was in hand. But they got cute with the revolutionary roof, and have left the door open for the stadium to not finish in time. The stadium may lose its opening date.

Why does this feel so oddly familiar? 11 Alive News has luckily grabbed subscriber content from the Business Chronicle, with a hat tip to Dirty South Soccer.

Metal panels for the roof are supposed to be able to open and close completely in less than 10 minutes, allowing for open-air games. But the Business Chronicle reports that the complex design has forced another delay for the stadium, which was supposed to open this month. That timeline has now been pushed back to June. - via 11 Alive News

I’m having trouble keeping up with the cost overages, but I believe the stadium is somewhere near double the original estimate. Every HGTV aficionado knows you need to price some costs for overages, but really, you don’t need to spend $10 a square foot on wood floors when laminate looks almost as good. You are on a budget.

The last report of overages included pushing the completion timeline back. They had generally planned to play some of the early soccer games elsewhere, but sweet preseason football was to be played in the stadium.

If the roof continues to cause problems, you might be watching preseason games somewhere other than the new Mercedes Benz stadium. OK, it’s preseason and you were probably watching them from home anyways.