Mercedes-Benz Stadium is about to open, with several major events lined up for the coming weeks–including the Atlanta Falcons‘ home debut.
The Falcons are slated to host their first preseason game at the stadium on August 26, while the regular-season opener is scheduled for September 17. In between, Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host several other notable events, such as college football matchups on September 2 and 4 and Atlanta United FC’s first match at the facility on September 10.
As the buildup to those events continues, Mercedes-Benz Stadium has many of its main elements in place. The retractable-roof, however, will not be fully operational when the facility opens, and officials are not prepared to offer a firm timeline for when it will be ready. It will be closed for the Falcons’ first preseason game, but could be fully operational at some point this fall. More from the AP:
Mike Egan, a senior vice president for Falcons and United owner Arthur Blank, said engineers are still working out some bugs to ensure the roof can be opened or closed in 11 minutes.
“It’s opened and closed a number of times already. We will be opening and closing it again next week,” Egan said. “It will absolutely be open for Falcons and Atlanta United games this fall.
“What we’re fine-tuning is the mechanization process, and that’s just the speed at which the roof opens and closes. It’s really just getting the balance of the roof right, as far as these are big petals and just moving them takes a lot of energy, and getting the calibration just right to reduce the energy load on this system. But it’s basically fully operable now.”
Mercedes-Benz Stadium will replace the Georgia Dome as home to the Falcons. The team had played at the Georgia Dome since 1992.
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