Dive Brief:
- Despite previous delays, the new $1.4 billion, 75,000-seat Mercedes-Benz stadium for the Atlanta Falcons will be ready in June 2017, well in advance of the 2017-2018 NFL season, team President and CEO Rich McKay told local news station 11 Alive.
- Construction is between 50% and 60% complete, and the eight-piece retractable roof is being "continuously engineered" as the stadium progresses, according to McKay.
- When complete, the project will be the only LEED Platinum-certified sports-entertainment complex in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
Concrete pours and steel manufactured in 32 different plants across the country and Canada were among potential schedule-killers on the project, McKay said, but he added that construction crews managed to get work back on schedule.
In February, stadium project heads said the steel structure for the retractable roof had been "quite the challenge," pushing the stadium's target opening date back three months to June 1, 2017.
The stadium project has drawn significant attention, primarily because of its roof design. According to project renderings, the roof features eight "petals," which can open within eight minutes in a style reminiscent of a camera lens aperture. The stadium will also feature the world’s largest video board — 58 feet tall and 1,100 linear feet in diameter.
The new Minnesota Vikings stadium is getting ready to wrap up construction soon, and it also has an unusual element of design, 200,000 square feet of exterior glass, which bird advocates say will kill birds drawn to it from the Mississippi River flyway. And when the Washington Redskins find a place to build, they will begin construction on a Bjarke Ingels Group-designed stadium, featuring a semi-transparent arena, as well as a moat for kayakers.
