A noticeable change will come to Mercedes-Benz Stadium next month.
Eight permanent on-field terraces, each featuring lounge seating for six to eight people, will be built behind the sidelines before the start of the Falcons season.
The terraces, four on each side of the field, will be sold on an event-by-event basis for Falcons, Atlanta United and college football games, as well as for concerts and other stadium events.
“We’re always looking at the venue space and how it can be utilized in different ways,” said Don Rovak, senior vice president of ticket sales and service for Falcons and Atlanta United parent company AMB Sports & Entertainment, which operates the stadium. “We need to continue to reinvent. We need to continue to spice it up and offer different products.”
The terraces won’t come cheaply for fans, of course. Stadium officials declined to disclose the projected prices, but said they’ll vary widely from event to event and will be comparable with suite pricing. That could put a terrace price anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars for a particular event, depending on the demand.
The spaces are being marketed by the stadium as “the place to entertain and be seen” and a “VIP experience.” The appeal may be found more in the on-field atmosphere, energy and exclusivity than in what figures to be an obstructed view of, say, Falcons games from the terraces.
“It’s going to be interesting what the actual view is once you put a bunch of football players in front of them,” Rovak acknowledged. But he expects “a feeling of prestige, of something really truly unique.”
It’s part of an emerging trend in recent NFL stadiums of placing premium seating options ever closer to the action.
SoFi Stadium, the 2-year-old home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, offers field cabanas, described by the Los Angeles Times as so close to the action that “you could very well have a defensive lineman land in your beer.” And Allegiant Stadium, the 2-year-old home of the Las Vegas Raiders, offers the Wynn Field Club in one end zone, described by the Las Vegas Review-Journal as “a full-fledged nightclub at field level.”
Since Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s opening in 2017, premium ticket holders in the first 35 rows have been able to step onto the field from private clubs and stand on the turf behind the sidelines during events. Those available areas will be reduced by about 10 yards on each end to install the terrace seating.
“We feel this will add to the atmosphere (in the stadium),” Rovak said. “It’ll be a part of the show, no different than NBA floor seats.”
Plans call for four six-person terraces on one side of the field and four eight-person terraces on the other. Two will be placed next to one another in each corner, roughly between football’s 20- and 30-yard lines on both ends and sides of the field. Two adjacent terraces can be combined and purchased together for larger groups.
Up to two standing-room tickets can be added for each terrace. Groups of up to 20 people can be accommodated by combining two adjacent eight-person terraces, plus two standing-room tickets with each.
The spaces will be branded the “Delta Sky360 Terraces” on one side of the field and the “Maybach Terraces” on the other. Maybach is a luxury car brand that is part of Mercedes-Benz. The spaces are being designed by TVS Design, an architecture, interior design and planning firm that previously worked on the stadium’s premium clubs.
Construction and installation are scheduled for completion the week of Aug. 22-27.
Rovak said some – not all – of the terraces have been sold for some Falcons, Atlanta United and college football games. He thinks one potential market will be found in Atlanta startup companies that don’t want a typical suite but seek “something more unique than a ticket to a game.”
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