Opinions?
Looks like something a high-tech alien jumped out of, right before it went on a rampage and ate Atlanta.
Lucky for the churches they are on an “Protected list” else the city would “eminent domain” their A%%.
Otherwise I’m for the churches to squeeze the city and the falcons for all they’re worth.
(I love football but I’m tired of rich NFL teams soaking the local communities)
The team prefers the south site. Those churches also prefer the south site. Friendship Baptist, established in 1866 and the wellspring for both Morehouse and Spelman colleges, has rejected the city's offer of $13.5 million for the property, asking for nearly double that. Mayor Kasim Reed told 11 Alive he's upped the offer by $2 million. Meanwhile, the state is negotiating with Martin Luther King Drive's Mount Vernon Baptist.
Ping for later
Friendship Baptist is the oldest black Baptist congregation in Atlanta, established right after the Civil War. The building itself dates from around 1880. Morehouse College moved to Atlanta from Augusta at their invitation, and Spelman actually started in their basement.
The present church site is directly across the street from the college/Atlanta University complex (though closer to Morris Brown), so they will lose not only historic value but proximity to the school.
But sufficient money ought to allow them to move the building brick by brick and set it up again nearby (lots of vacant land in the vicinity).
The problem is Mt. Vernon Baptist, which is actually closer to the Dome (on the same side of MLK and contiguous w/ the Dome - FBC is across MLK). The building is pure 1960s and has no historical value whatsoever - but they are in the middle.
I drive right through that intersection on my way to work.
I support the separation of sports and state. The churches own the land, let the teams pay whatever the owners want.
I’m a big NFL fan but, surprisingly, I’m with the churches on this one. Unless the church’s facilities aren’t nearly as old as the age of their congregation, how brazen is it to ask a church to abandon the land that has carried so much history?
The Georgia Dome is hardly old. They should have paid to build a better stadium.
Houston is trying to decide what to do with the Astrodome that has gone largely unused since 2000. Maybe Atlantans could pay to blow up the Georgia Dome and then transport the Astrodome to the same site. It withstood Hurricanes Alicia (1983) and Ike (2008) with hardly a scratch. It could use a good paint job, though.
The property’s worth a little over $2 million. The church wants ten times what the property would be worth for any other purpose. And the corrupt third world politicians want to get the money to them.
I hate to see historic buildings destroyed for the sake of money. However, if the churches think money is more important than I say soak the Falcons and let the rich pay their fair share. I’d also hold out for season tickets, in perpetuity, for members of each church and their immediate families.
zero taxpayer dollars should be involved in this crap
If it’s such a great investment, let the Falcons pay for it. Why should anyone who doesn’t go to a game have to pay for this boondoggle?
Pray for America to Wake Up
Another instance of the taxpayers being screwed by the politicians and bureaucrats to benefit wealthy democratic donors. (A$$hole Blank donated to both parties, but more to the Democrats.) Atlanta's mayors ever since the reign of the late and totally unlamened Mainturd Jackson have kept alive the black democrat tradition of corruption and unethical dealigs when not engaged in outright criminal acts. Just one more unethical act of screwing the taxpayers for something that the majority of them DON'T want.