Once it is demolished, the Georgia Dome will be replaced by The Home Depot Backyard, a 13-acre greenspace next to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
As unveiled on Friday, The Home Depot Backyard will serve multiple purposes. Along with providing parking and room for tailgating on days of Atlanta Falcons games and Atlanta United FC matches, the area will serve as an event space and park on a year-round basis.
The Georgia Dome hosted its last event in March, and is still expected to be demolished later this year, even though it was recently announced that Mercedes-Benz Stadium will not open until August. The Home Depot Backyard is expected to debut at some point in 2018.
While The Home Depot Backyard represents a new offering for the area surrounding Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it will occupy just a portion of the Georgia Dome’s footprint. Plans to develop the remainder of the property are taking shape. More from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
In addition to the park, which will open in 2018, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority plans to build an 800-to-1,000 room hotel on the Dome site.
Others participating in the announcement included Home Depot CEO Craig Menear, GWCCA Chairman David Allman and Frank Fernandez, vice president of community development for The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
“This stadium is being done differently than any other stadium in the United States of America in terms of the way it is embracing the community,” [Atlanta mayor Kasim] Reed said.
The Georgia Dome originally opened in 1992. The Falcons played their final contest in the facility when they hosted the NFC Championship Game on January 22.
Renderings courtesy Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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