Sports Over Education? Georgia Legislators Might Think So

“The theater department got cut at my school, but at least the roof on that new stadium slides open and closed”

The backwards statement posted above might be a realistic thought in the coming years if you are a student at a college or universtiy run by the State University System of Georgia.

This week, Georgia legislatures passed a Bill that has opened the gates for millions of dollars to flood towards funding for the Georgia Dome site in downtown Atlanta.

This decision was made as students protesting budget cuts in the State University System were throwing rocks at the golden dome.

The legislatures might have heard the bombardment outside their doors, however they were too busy thinking about the pigskin.

For the past few years the Atlanta Falcons have been looking for a potential new home. The Georgia Dome, the Falcons’ current home stadium, apparently is outdated and in need of more renovations to keep up with the top stadiums in the country.

Buildings such as the Arizona Cardinals’ University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, as well as the Cowboys’ 100,000 seat stadium in Arlington, Texas has gotten the Georgia Dome and the Atlanta Falcons feeling inferior.

So, the legislatures passed the bill this week that is extending the tenure of the hotel/motel tax in Fulton County, with the revenue filtering into the hands of the state.

Yes. The Georgia Dome is run as part of the Georgia World Congress Center and is owned and operated by the State of Georgia. State money, coming from taxes, keeps the Dome operating.

Good thing the Dome does operate, because the Georgia Dome is essentially the primary tourist attraction in the Atlanta area.

The Dome isn’t just home to the Atlanta Falcons for eight games a year. It also houses an annual kickoff game between two major college football teams, the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the SEC Championship game, as well as numerous other football events. It also regularly holds major college basketball tournaments, such as the SEC and ACC tournaments.

Basically, the Georgia Dome is the mecca of southeastern sports. It brings thousands of thousands of dollars into the city. It is owned by the state, so all of the money it brings in goes to the state.

So, it is a priority to have this building up and running to the point where it has the capacity to hold sporting events.

But for some reason, legislatures believe the Georgia Dome isn’t good enough.

This new bill will enable the state to, potentially, drastically renovate the stadium…

…or build a new one. This is where things have me scratching my head.

What is wrong with the current stadium? It’s infastructure is top notch; it withstood a tornado a few years ago. The dome fills up for every event it houses, and can seat up to 70,000 people, which is in the top-teir of the NFL when it comes to stadium capacity.

The Dome is also multipurpose, and the only multipurpose venue of it’s kind in the entire southeastern United States.

But, the State wants to build a new stadium? In these economic times? When the legislatures are claiming there just isn’t anywhere else to cut spending except the State University System of Georgia, where thousands of students lives are going to be drastically impacted?

Let me be real. I’m not a huge political/economic junky. When I first read about these stadium plans I fact-fished on the internet for a couple of hours to find any loopholes or brick walls that would explain why the state would have to cut into the education system, despite setting aside millions of dollars for a football stadium.

My understanding of the situation is an understanding of the surface, so I’m not going to nail anyone down, accuse anyone, or claim I'm surfacing some catastrophic injustice.

But I beg to question, and I encourage you to wonder. Rules, regulations, and fine print aside, why is state money going to a stadium and not Kennesaw State University, The University of Georgia, The Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and the like?

The priority sharks are swimming in my head.

You might be asking how much, exactly, would renovations or a new stadium cost?

Renovations could be as low as $10 million, and could possibly get as high as $100 million.

But guess how much a new stadium would cost. The Georgia Dome cost $214 million to build in 1989.

The Arizona Cardinals’ University of Phoenix Stadium, which is the standard of new state of the art complexes—like the one Atlanta wants—cost $455 million.

The magic number for the budget cuts in the State University System: $385 million.

Now the new hotel tax bill simply extended the tenure of the taxes from 2020 to 2050, so this is a long term filtering of money.

But the talks of the new stadium imply a stadium being built in the next decade.

Why are we even thinking about this? The Georgia Dome didn’t get torn down by the tornado. It still stands. It houses games. It brings revenue.

A new stadium will not drastically increase the revenue coming from the events. The same amount of people will be working. The same amount of people will show up to games. The same amount of events will be held.

A renovation of the stadium would seem understandable. Using tax dollars, coming from the hotel industries, to fund a state-run operation and to make state money is completely fine with me.

But putting aside anywhere from $200- to $500 million in the next ten years while our schools lose departments, staff, and students is a concept of epically disturbing proportions.

If anyone can find any facts or figures that can justify these operations, please be my guest. I’m not saying that on my high horse. I literally am curious to hear why this isn’t a big deal. I’m curious to see what justifies this operation.

I’m just speaking on practicality. State money needs to head to education before it heads to retractable roofs and jumbotrons.

I would like to hear opinions on this. Are there any facts that debunk my gripe, or do the legislatures have serious priority issues?

The Falcons can play at Northcutt Stadium at Marietta Middle School for all I care. Even as a huge sports fan, it makes me sick that the idea of a highly expensive stadium would even cross the minds of these people.

Let’s wait for the schools to keep their departments, or for the Georgia Dome to fall down, before we spend $400 million on a giant cement box.