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MARTINI BAR OPENS IN PHILIPS ARENA
November 2, 2000
Copyright 2000 MediaVentures
Absolut Vodka has opened a martini bar at the new Philips Arena in Atlanta. Seagrams, which markets Absolut, is using Atlanta as a test market for the concept. Revenue from the bars goes to the arena, but Absolut gets sponsorship benefits. A Jack Daniels club will open later in the year.
Absolut is not the first to open a branded liquor bar in a sports venue. Club Chivas Regal is open in MiamiÕs American Airlines Arena and several venues feature Bacardi drink carts.
Omni demolition 'not a movie' so please stay home
By Henry Unger, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionWhat a wake-up call.
At 6:43 a.m. Saturday, Omni Hotel guests will be aroused by the sound of 2,844 explosive devices imploding the Omni coliseum next-door.
The hotel will be giving advance written warning to its 200 guests, but, so far, there are no plans to leave earplugs on their pillows.
As for the rest of the public, the word from officials is -- stay home. Set your alarm clock for 6:30 and turn on the TV to watch the 25-year-old arena become rubble in about 10 seconds.
"This is not entertainment," Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Inc., said Tuesday. "This is not a movie here. This is demolition."
There will not be a public viewing area because of safety concerns. The Omni demolition is extremely complex because of the arena's close proximity to CNN Center and the MARTA rail station, and because the building is relatively new and structurally strong, officials said.
"This is one of the few times we're encouraging people not to take MARTA," said Laura Gillig, spokeswoman for the transit agency.
In fact, Gillig said, the Omni station will be closed Saturday from around 6 a.m. to 7:30 a..m. All trains that run through the station will stop on either side, at Five Points and Vine City, for about 15 minutes surrounding the implosion time.
Techwood Drive and International Boulevard will be closed a half-hour before the implosion.
Also, there will be a "no-fly zone" for TV helicopters. They won't be able to come within a half-mile of the Omni and must fly at least 1,200 feet above ground.
Despite the technical difficulties, an implosion will save considerable time and money, compared with dismantling the entire building, Loizeaux said.
Time is important for Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which wants the new arena it is building on the Omni site to be ready for the fall 1999 basketball and hockey seasons.
Atlantans will not get much of a recuperation period between implosions. Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium is scheduled to be demolished Aug. 2 or Aug. 3 by D.H. Griffin and Demolition Dynamics Inc.
From WSB TV Channel 2
The Omni is only a memory now.
With a boom and a cloud of dust, the Omni Coliseum was blown up Saturday morning. "It was loud," says WSB Reporter Jeff Dore. "You felt it all the way through you."
The arena that was home to the NBA's Atlanta Hawks for 25 years, and to the NHL's Flames before they moved to Calgary, was destroyed at 6:51 a.m. Saturday July 26, 1997 just after dawn by three well-orchestrated explosions which were activated by Mayor Bill Campbell when he pushed the plunger to detonate the Omni.
The facility was demolished to make room for a fancier, bigger $215 million arena scheduled to open in two years. About a thousand spectators - some clutching memosas and Bloody Marys - watched as the nearly 3,000 explosives took 15 seconds to drop the 27,000-ton skeleton of the building.
Homeless Hawks try to look on bright side
By Jeffrey Denberg, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In 1984, a promoter paid the Hawks $1.2 million to play 12 games at the University of New Orleans. Already a mediocre team, the Hawks slipped to their second-worst record of the past 20 years and drew badly at UNO and the Omni.
At the time, no one even suggested that playing just 29 games on their home court was anything less than a hardship.
But this year and next, the Hawks are without a real home.
As the arena is constructed on the site of the former Omni, they will split this season between Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum (13 games) and the Georgia Dome (28 games).
"It's for a good cause," says guard Steve Smith. "We know after two years we'll have our own building again. Meanwhile, we can't let it be a problem."
These are two completely dissimilar facilities. The 70,000-seat Dome will be turned into a 21,500-seat basketball house. Tech, meanwhile, seats 9,300. So, the Hawks will strive for intimacy in the big building while players try to adjust to the confines of the main floor at Tech.
"The wall under one basket will take some getting used to," says ex-Jackets player Drew Barry. "It's not really a problem, but it's there." Barry, the only Hawks player who has played in the Dome, did that as a Tech player as well. However, the seating will be configured in a manner unique to the Dome to eliminate open spaces.
Dikembe Mutombo has never been inside Alexander, but he has heard a story. "I heard there is a concrete wall that if you run into it, oh, you kill yourself."
Mutombo is one of the few who mourn the old Omni.
"Our home is gone," he lamented. "When you play well in a building, you hate to lose it. We got to find a place where we can break our record of 20 straight [in the Omni last season]. Georgia Tech or Georgia Dome. I don't care. I was in the Georgia Dome to see the Olympics, but I haven't played there."
Ty Corbin has played on nine home courts in seven different cities. This is small potatoes for a 12th-year man. "The thing I learned is if you don't play well and lose, you always look for excuses. It's the arena, it's something else. But if you go out and do your job, you don't need excuses. That's how it should be in this situation. You go out and play your best every night, no matter where it is."
Hawks General Manager Pete Babcock asks, "How can anybody know it's going to be a problem? We've never even practiced in either facility."
When the Hawks move into their new arena in September 1999, they will have a full-time home with a practice court, weight room and rehab facility.
Architects' goal: Create a downtown "neighborhood"
By Maria Saporta and Henry Unger, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The building of a new arena on the site of the demolished Omni will have a ripple effect stretching through several block downtown.
Unlike the Omni, the new arena's grand entrance will be on street level, inviting the public inside the "Atlanta" archway on Techwood Drive.
The new entrance isone example how the building has been designed to fit into the streetscape and welcome pedestrians.
The street will go from five lanes of 12 feet each to four lanes of 11 feet to accommodate trees and wider sidewalks. Two crosswalks -- and probably two new traffic lights -- will permit pedestrians to cross from the parking decks to the arena's front door. Project developers are exploring the possibility of changing Techwood from a one-way street to two ways, to make it seem more like a city street than a highway.
The design also calls for a new street southwest of the new arena, to link Techwood with the Georgia World Congress Center. That street would have parking meters so that patrons could run in and buy a ticket without having to pay a fortune in parking fees.
"We are trying to create a real city block," said Bernardo Fort Brescia, partner of Arquitectonica, one of the four architectural firms involved in the project. "We thought a new street added a whole new dimension, creating a main square that is very much part of the city."
Across the street, the existing parking decks will have new pedestrian walkways linking Techwood with Spring Street. Eventually, those walkways could be extended, if the city and state governments build the proposed multi-modal train station on the next block.
The arena's new parking garage -- at the corner of Marietta and Techwood -- will be partly hidden by a festival-like retail development. And apparently, the historic Glenn Building will be saved; Turner Broadcasting officials once had contemplated tearing it down, much to the consternation of preservationists.
"Subject to the budget, we are working very hard to preserve the Glenn Building," said Janet Marie Smith, president of Turner Sports and Entertainment Development Inc. The plan now calls for it to be renovated as office space. Its first use will be to house the arena project's construction-management team.
The parking garage -- two floors underground and five floors above ground -- is being built with the necessary foundation and structural elements for the Turner organization to build a high-rise office building in the future.
"There's no program or mandate for an office tower right now," Smith said, adding that Turner, not the city, is paying for the extra structural costs for the future development.
Still, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said he believes that it is only a matter of time before an office tower will be built on that site, either by Turner or its parent, Time Warner Inc.
"The street-level retail is a most exciting thing for us," Campbell said. "And we also feel confident there will be a Time Warner office building constructed there. It's cheaper to be in Atlanta than in New York City. It is a better quality of life, and, because of all the infrastructure improvements, it is a better location."
The overall thrust of the project's design is to connect the arena, Centennial Olympic Park, CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center with the rest of downtown.
"The whole area is going to be transformed," said Stan Kasten,president of the Hawks and Braves and coordinator of the development plans. "You can get a lot for $70 million to make downtown comfortable, well-lit and a friendly neighborhood."
Construction costs for the public improvements around the arena are budgeted for about $72 million and are being paid by a 3 percent car-rental tax. The arena itself will cost Turner Broadcasting $141 million to build.
"It's going to be an incredible enhancement of the entire area paid for by a very small car-rental fee at the airport," Campbell said. "I'm particularly pleased [that] it is going to bring a lot more people to downtown Atlanta at night."
The city's planning commissioner, Michael Dobbins, said the design has come a long way from his earlier discussions with the architects.
"They have worked very hard to create an environment that can fit into the grain of downtown and Centennial Olympic Park," Dobbins said.
Still unknown is how the existing CNN Center will be renovated in conjunction with the arena project.
"I'm excited because it becomes a destination spot for all of downtown," said Charlie Battle, president of the business group Central Atlanta Progress. "It can be a catalyst for redevelopment for the entire area."
That's just what Fort Brescia envisions.
"We wanted it to be a fun place to go that would fit in with the rest of the city," he said. "We saw it very much as the beginning of a neighborhood."
Flashy arena looks to "make a statement"
By Henry Unger and Maria Saporta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"ATLANTA."
That word, 60 feet high, will emblazon the entrance of the new $213 million downtown arena, instantly becoming Atlanta's new signature postcard.
The arena's design, featuring three sweeping arched roofs, was unveiled Thursday in the atrium of CNN Center on the "Talk Back Live" set.
Also displayed were more than a dozen images of how the new home of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team would fit in with the surrounding area and with new streetscapes, shopping areas and restaurants.
Serving as a backdrop was the project's significance. Three-and-a-half years ago, Hawks officials announced they would build an arena in the suburbs. But on Thursday, the same executives were proclaiming the project as a rebirth of downtown.
"It is a wonderful new beginning for this part of downtown," Hawks President Stan Kasten said at Thursday's news conference.
Mayor Bill Campbell called the arena "the most important public works project for downtown in the last 20 years," and he credited media/sports mogul Ted Turner, vice chairman of Time Warner and founder of CNN, with preventing the arena from going to the suburbs.
When the 20,000-seat arena opens in September 1999 as home of the Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers, a new National Hockey League franchise, it will provide a catalyst for development in the area, civic leaders say.
"This project allows us to continue to pump more blood and money into the heart of Atlanta," Campbell said.
Turner's hindsight on arena location
By Maria Saporta, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionWhat a strange twist of fate.
While walking from the Westin Peachtree Plaza to his quarters at CNN Center, Ted Turner last week said the new downtown sports arena should be built "next door" instead of on the site of the Omni coliseum.
By next door, Turner was referring to the railroad gulch -- a site that had been favored by many city officials and some Hawks and Turner Broadcasting System executives as the best location for the arena.
Building in the gulch would have allowed the Hawks and others to continue using the Omni while the new arena was under construction. It also would have helped bridge CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center with Underground Atlanta -- filling a decades-old hole in the middle of downtown.
The irony of Turner's comments, however, was that he was the one who had favored the Omni site all along and ultimately made the decision last year to give up on buying the gulch from Norfolk Southern railroad.
"It's not being built where it should have been -- next door," said Turner, who as vice chairman of Time Warner Inc. and founder of Turner Broadcasting owns the Hawks and is overseeing the arena development.
Asked about his apparent change of heart, Turner said his staff had convinced him of the merits of the gulch site.
"The problem was, the railroad was unreasonable," Turner said. "When they were about to get reasonable, it was too late."
Too late? Perhaps.
Now the arena is back in play. Hawks executives have had to change the financing plan to satisfy concerns of the National Basketball Association.
Now they face the unpleasant task of bringing a revised arena deal back up for votes by the Atlanta City Council, Fulton County Commission and Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority.
To meet their tight schedule for tearing down the Omni and building the new arena on that site by fall 1999, Hawks executives say local governments must approve the new deal by June 1.
However, Fulton County Commission Chairman Mitch Skandalakis has promised to do what he can to defeat the new deal. He added that the Hawks would be "foolish" to tear down the Omni as long as the deal is in flux.
If, by June 1, the local governments haven't signed off, might the gulch option be reconsidered?
If the arena were to be built in the gulch, the Omni could continue operating and be a fallback in case the construction schedule slips. The Omni then could be torn down for parking, a plaza and perhaps an expansion of CNN Center.
"We haven't disposed of the property," said David R. Goode, chairman and CEO of Norfolk Southern, who was in town this week. "We will certainly talk to anybody who is interested in it. We are not hard to deal with."
One person who hopes this latest snafu will revive the gulch option is Daniel A. Graveline Jr., executive director of the Congress Center beside the Omni and CNN Center.
"It would make a heck of a lot of sense to put it in the gulch," Graveline said. "Then you could maintain the Omni in the interim."
But Turner officials already have invested significant time and money on architectural plans locating the arena on the Omni site and a 1,200-space parking garage on the Atlanta Federal Reserve property on Marietta Street. Turner has not yet purchased the Federal Reserve block, waiting for a final arena deal.
Meanwhile, negotiations are on hold in Turner's effort to acquire air rights to build more parking above adjacent Atlanta Journal-Constitution property. Instead, Turner is proceeding on a plan to acquire property from MARTA underneath its parking decks for 800 parking spaces.
Hawks President Stan Kasten, who had wanted the arena to be built in the suburbs, said his phone started ringing after news this week that the project might be in trouble. "Everyone has told us their land is still there, and that their deals are still there," Kasten said, declining to elaborate. If by June 1 the downtown arena project is still in limbo, Kasten said, "all those options will have to remain to be explored."
Maria Saporta's column, with assistance from Stan Hubbard, appears regularly. Reach Maria Saporta by e-mail at msaporta @ajc.com
The new deal
Paying off construction bonds for the arena will require annual debt payments of about $12.5 million for 30 years. Originally, the Hawks pledged all the team's revenue to back the bonds if the revenue from the arena itself fell short. But the NBA rejected that idea. Here are key parts of the Hawks' current proposal:
Arena revenue will still be pledges. If a National Hockey League team joins the Hawks, there will be about twice as much money as required. If just the Hawks play, there will be about 1.3 times the required money.
Hawks' unconditional guarantee to pay off the debt if arena revenues fall short.
Title to the Hawks franchise as collateral is Hawks fail to make up any shortfall.
(Source: Atlanta Hawks)
Hawks put on the line in arena bid
By Maria Saporta and Henry Unger, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionTurner Broadcasting System said Tuesday it would forfeit ownership of the Atlanta Hawks if it fails to make even one debt payment on the planned downtown arena.
That's a key part of the company's new proposal to protect taxpayers after the National Basketball Association said the Hawks couldn't go through with the original deal. The NBA said the team couldn't pledge all its revenues to back the government bonds issued to build the arena because players and coaches must be paid first.
"This is far and away much greater security," Hawks president Stan Kasten said. "We didn't want to do this. If we don't pay the debt, we give up our franchise. We turn over the keys of the team."
Kasten went on the offensive and released details of the new proposal after Fulton County Commission Chairman Mitch Skandalakis vowed to vote against it, regardless of its terms. Skandalakis also said he would ask his colleagues to do the same, which would jeopardize the $213 million project.
"I've had it with this deal," Skandalakis said. "I think our board should be outraged" that the agreement has changed so late in the game.
Turner executives said they were surprised the NBA rejected the Hawks' revenue pledge. But they are now offering what they say is a better taxpayer guarantee to try to win governmental approval all over again. Fulton County, the Atlanta City Council and the Atlanta-Fulton Recreation Authority all must approve the new financing package.
Kasten said those approvals must come by June 1 for the project -- which includes knocking down the Omni, where the arena would be built -- to remain on schedule. If approvals are delayed beyond that date, Kasten said, "we are in jeopardy of losing a year" because the arena would not be able to open in the fall of 1999. That would cost the Hawks $10 million to $15 million.
"We are not going to blow $10 million to $15 million," Kasten said, adding that the project then could unravel or change location -- either to another downtown site or to the suburbs.
Getting the approvals could prove troublesome, however, because it's a political season. Mayor Bill Campbell is running for re-election, and Skandalakis, one of his key adversaries, has just launched his race for lieutenant governor.
If Turner wants to build a new arena, Skandalakis said, it can do so without government bonds.
Campbell, who described Skandalakis as "one wayward soul," predicted he won't succeed in killing the new arena.
Both Campbell and Kasten said they hope officials will study details of the new proposal. Those include the same pledge of arena revenues -- tickets, concessions, advertising and parking --- as in the initial deal. The Hawks also pledge to cover any shortfall in debt. If they didn't, there would be $15 million set aside to cover debt payments while the Recreation Authority foreclosed on the team. The Hawks would then be sold to a new owner, with proceeds going to repay the bonds.
"That's the confidence level we have in this deal," Kasten said.
Hawks' New Arena near Olympic Park
ATLANTA (AP) -- The Atlanta Hawks will move into a new arena near Centennial Olympic Park in 1999.
"We've got it narrowed down to a very few locations right nearby where we are now," team president Stan Kasten said Tuesday. "As soon as we lock up land, we'll be making an announcement."
Kasten spoke at a news conference where city business leaders showed an artist's version of future development around the 21-acre downtown park.
The rendering showed the new arena on the site of the present Omni arena, but Kasten said that site is only a possibility.
His plan, he said, is to bring NHL hockey and other events to the Hawks' 20,000-seat arena, adding 100 or more luxury boxes as quickly as possible. The NHL has made no commitment to put a team in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce rendering shows mixed-income housing on land that is now Coca-Cola Olympic City and the Techwood Homes public housing project, both north of the park.
It also shows an entertainment district east of the park, which now has lder buildings and a former church that was turned into a blues concert hall for the Olympics.
November 2, 1996 Sandy Springs, Georgia (AP) - The Atlanta Hawks reached agreement with city officials to build a $215 million arena in downtown Atlanta to replace their current home, the Omni.
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