The Atlanta Falcons and the city of Atlanta agreed back in March to a deal that will likely land the franchise a brand new $1 billion by the 2017 season. A document with initial stadium proposal ideas surfaced this week and while most of it is standard NFL stadium stuff, there are some pretty zany and out-there ideas that are being proposed. One of the ideas being proposed would add “Impact Seating” in the new stadium, which is basically a rip-off of D-Box seating in movie theaters, only instead of explosions a fan would feel the hits being delivered on the field.
The idea of adding seats like this actually isn’t a bad plan. With the rise of television viewership killing ticket sales, NFL teams are needing to find ways to draw the fan off his couch and back into the stadium. Impact seating is a wildly innovative idea that is one more way of bringing the fan closer to the game and could revolutionize the stadium experience.
One design has the stadium appearing to be a rose from an aerial view while another is a more standard “barn” shape but is made almost entirely out of glass with an open roof.
The craziest idea is a panoramic video board that gives you a planetarium-style view of the game. Basically, think Jerry Jones’ massive video board if it wrapped around the stadium and gave fans an IMAX like experience of the game. This would likely help sell nose-bleed seats as even that high up, the game is right in your face.
These aren’t necessarily bad ideas, in fact almost all of them sound like good ones if done right. The NFL needs to start selling tickets again and it might come to creating literal football carnivals to bring the fans out of the comfort of their own homes and back into the stadium.