Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Level it

You might have seen this little item tucked inside Thursday’s paper:

Long-term plan sought

for Georgia Dome

ATLANTA (AP)— The Georgia World Congress Center Authority is trying to determine what to do with the Georgia Dome.

The authority agreed on Tuesday to pay Populous architects of Kansas City, Mo. $145,000 to propose a master plan for the Dome, the home of the Atlanta Falcons since 1992. The results could be available by early spring.

There was a little more, but not much.

The World Congress Center folks have no doubt already signed the contract with the Kansas City outfit, but just in case they haven’t, let me offer them an alternative “master plan” for free, and save the taxpayers of Georgia 145 grand:

Bulldoze it. Flatten it. Vaporize it. Implode it, haul off the concrete and steel, pile up everything flammable on what used to be the 50-yard line and have a bonfire that would put Sherman to shame.

The Georgia Dome is — how can I put this tactfully? — a dump.

The interior of the place is mostly whitewashed cinderblock, for crying out loud. It was built as an ugly, ridiculously expensive indulgence for those types who, even in the late ’80s and early ’90s, still thought a domed stadium was the ultimate in mod, hep, with-it Daddy-O sports grooviness.

Like people who actually talked that way, it hasn’t gotten better with age.

From the outside, it looks like something between a circus tent and the world’s biggest bus station men’s room. Inside, it’s pretty much like every other domed stadium, which means it’s a bush-league place to watch a game meant to be played on grass and mud.

It’s a sign of how far behind the curve Atlanta was when you remember that the Georgia Dome was built at a time when, except in places where climate really did make anything else impossible, dome mania had long since died. Retro-modern venues like Camden Yards in Baltimore, which combined the look of a traditional baseball park with contemporary luxuries and fan amenities, were replacing not just domes, but blah venues like Atlanta Stadium and its relatives in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Even in Atlanta, just a stone’s throw from the dome, somebody had enough savvy to convert an Olympic stadium into a real baseball park.

(Rumor has it Houston is now using the Astrodome for an impound lot, but my info could be wrong.)

Remember, we’re talking Atlanta here — not Green Bay, where it’s always 50 below zero, or Miami, where it’s 90 and humid even in December. Oh, by the way, Green Bay and Miami still play football outdoors.

Football season in Georgia, after a few hot afternoons in September, tends to be glorious. Fans of teams like the Packers and Patriots and Dolphins and Bears must think we’re total weenies.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank reportedly wants a new stadium when Georgia has finally paid off the bonds it sold to build the dome. The possibilities now said to be under consideration are a new open-air stadium (please please please), a retractable-roof facility, or even … building a new dome.

We mustn’t take that risk. Bulldoze it now, before anybody has second thoughts. Cut a quick deal with Georgia Tech to play Falcons games at Grant Field for a while. Move the SEC Championship temporarily back to Birmingham if you have to.

This is our chance. Let’s not blow it.

Dusty Nix, 706-571-8528 or dnix@ledger-enquirer.com.