What’s new at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Falcons season

“We’re still in COVID, so we don’t want to act like it’s over, but there obviously has been a loosening-up progressively over the past year-plus,” said Shannon Joyner, the Falcons’ senior director of marketing. “It really does feel like this year … is kind of at full tilt.

“The overarching theme of 2022 is really us being able to be at the 2019 levels, and then further, of engaging with (fans).”

Here’s a look at what’s new at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the Falcons’ season:

Fan experience

“There are a lot of people who are fully coming back this year for the first time (since the pandemic began),” Rish said. “One of the things we want to lean heavily into is making every person that comes into the building feel they have been welcomed back in some capacity.”

For example, she said, the Falcons plan to have autograph sessions with former players before every game on the stadium’s upper level and to have other former stars on hand to greet fans as they come through the club entrances.

After games, Rish said, a “fifth quarter” will be held in the Mercedes-Benz and Delta Sky360 clubs, featuring live music or a DJ, with food-and-beverage service extended a half-hour. The idea is that the approximately 6,000 ticket holders in those clubs can wait out some of the postgame traffic.

The Falcons are planning new initiatives around a general-admission “fan zone” section launched in a lower corner of the stadium last year. “It was difficult to start an avid-fan club amid a pandemic,” Rish said. Dubbed the “Dirty Birds Nest” and intended to be a source of game-day energy, the 750-seat section is the only one in the stadium offered as season tickets without a personal seat license fee.

The stadium’s train-horn sound effect remains, but its set has been redesigned at the top of the “Dirty Birds Nest.” And, of course, mascot Freddie Falcon returns, but he’ll “take flight,” Rish said, by ziplining into opening day against New Orleans.

On-field terraces

Construction and installation have been completed on eight permanent on-field terraces, each with seating for six to eight people. The new terraces, four on each side of the field, are being marketed as “the place to entertain and be seen” and a “VIP experience.” Two adjacent terraces can be combined for larger groups.

Credit: Kyle Hess/Atlanta United

Credit: Kyle Hess/Atlanta United

The spaces are being sold on an event-by-event basis for Falcons and Atlanta United games, as well as for other stadium events. Prices vary from event to event and are comparable with suite pricing, which could put a terrace price anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars for a particular event, depending on demand.

The estimated cost of the project was $2 million, stadium officials told the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.

What else is new

– The stadium’s artificial turf was replaced early this year. The new turf is the same product, CORE, from the same brand, FieldTurf, as the previous. The cost of the project was approximately $500,000, according to figures provided to the GWCCA. (Stadium capital improvements are funded in part by a portion of the Atlanta hotel-motel tax dedicated to the facility and in part by AMB Sports & Entertainment.)

– The Falcons’ plan is for the stadium’s signature 360-degree video board to show more prerecorded features on players this season.

– New food offerings include Yard Dog, featuring specialty hot dogs, in the Delta and Mercedes-Benz clubs and Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks on the 200 level, among others.