The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday upheld the city of Atlanta’s plans to aid in financing the Falcons’ new $1.4 billion stadium.
The decision will allow the city to move forward with issuing $200 million in bonds toward the project. The stadium is scheduled to open in 2017.
The Falcons released a statement Monday:
“We are pleased with the Supreme Court opinion released today upholding the validation of the hotel-motel tax revenue bonds to be issued by Invest Atlanta as partial financing of the new Atlanta stadium. We appreciate the support and diligence of our partners at the city, Invest Atlanta and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority in seeing this through, and we look forward to continuing to work with them as we complete the construction of a facility that will benefit the city and state for many years to come.”
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the court decision comes more than a year after a group of residents first intervened in the deal brokered by Mayor Kasim Reed and approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2013, a legal challenge that has long delayed Atlanta’s plans.
Construction of the retractable roof stadium is underway in downtown Atlanta. Falcons owner Arthur Blank has said he plans to submit a bid for the team to host the Super Bowl in 2019.
