mountain_jim3

Just posted today: https://www.myajc.com/sports/mercedes-benz-stadium-roof-will-open-for-days-work-nears-finish/cWP9qD9GVYk3Dnoq0KdTdO/ Mercedes-Benz Stadium roof will be open for 10 days as work nears finish Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s retractable roof, which has been closed for all but two events, will be open in a locked position for 10 days beginning Tuesday as part of what is being called the final phase of completing work on its automation. That means stadium officials plan for Atlanta United’s next home match, June 2 against Philadelphia, to be played with the roof open. Following the 10-day period, stadium officials said “there will be a period of weeks designated to do final commissioning work to complete the automation.” After that period, operation of the roof will be turned over to stadium officials by the contractor. “Upon completion, the roof will be able to open or close in as few as 12 minutes at the push of a button,” according to stadium officials. “From the design phase, we knew this roof would be a unique part of the stadium and fan experience, offering a surprise and delight feature that no other building can offer,” Steve Cannon, CEO of Falcons and Atlanta United parent company AMB Group, said in a statement Friday. “The complexity of the design and our heavy events schedule has made it take longer than we had hoped, but great things take time and we’re happy to see the finish line.” Once automation work is complete, team and stadium officials said they will determine if the roof will be open for events involving the Falcons or Atlanta United “based on weather conditions and the safety and comfort of attendees.” For third party events, the decision for the roof position during their event will be made by the third party in cooperation with stadium officials prior to each event, stadium officials said. The plans announced Friday morning are in line with those outlined by Cannon in a March interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He said at the time that the roof would be fully automated by “early summer” and described the work still to be done as primarily “final balancing” followed by “final automation.” Near the end of the automation work, Cannon said at the time, there would be a 10-day stretch in which the roof would need to be in the open position continuously, rain or shine, for construction purposes. “Early summer is when it’s going to be a push-button (operation), meaning push the button and 11 minutes later it’s open,” Cannon said in the March interview. Issues related to the first-of-its-kind roof caused three construction delays, totaling about six months, before the $1.5 billion-plus stadium made its debut with the roof closed last August. Work was not completed on the roof’s automation when the stadium opened and was further slowed thereafter by the heavy schedule of events. The roof has been open for only one Falcons game (Sept. 17) and one Atlanta United game (Oct. 22). In those cases, moving the roof took about two hours, rather than the prescribed 11 or 12 minutes. Work on the roof reintensified after the College Football Playoff championship game in early January.

Question - has it been opened at all for this season's soccer games? Todays AJC article on the MLS All-Star game in Atlanta 8/1 made no mention of the roof. I thought they claimed it would be working by now (the 12 minutes thing), but have seen no updates lately. update from 03/09 AJC: Mercedes-Benz Stadium officials have watched the weather forecast closely in recent days, hoping the stadium’s retractable roof could be open for Sunday’s Atlanta United match. The forecast hasn’t cooperated, calling for a rainy weekend, and as of Friday it appeared highly likely the roof will remain closed Sunday. But Steve Cannon, CEO of Falcons and Atlanta United parent company AMB Group, provided an upbeat update on the longer-term status of the problematic roof, predicting it will operate as designed by “early summer.” “We’re getting close,” Cannon said. “I can see the finish line on this one, and it can’t come soon enough.” Work reintensified a couple of months ago on the roof, which has been open for only two events in the stadium’s 6-1/2 months of operation because it is not yet fully automated. The work has reached a stage where the construction team needs to open the roof for a day to install “load-balancing” gauges that will be used to ensure future roof moves are within design capacity, Cannon said. So the thought occurred to stadium and team officials that the need to open the roof for construction purposes could conveniently coincide with Atlanta United’s home opener. Alas, the weather forecast intervened. “If the weather says no, then we’ll wait for the weather to clear and open it as a construction move,” Cannon said. He described the work still to be done on the roof as primarily “final balancing” followed by “final automation.” As that work is done, there will be a five-week stretch in which the roof must remain closed and a 10-day stretch in which it will remain open, he said. “Early summer is when it’s going to be a push-button (operation), meaning push the button and 11 minutes later it’s open,” Cannon said. For now, moves of the roof take much longer and require more advance planning. “I want the roof opening to be part of the show,” Cannon said. He noted that the NFL requires the roof to be in its game configuration 90 minutes before kickoff, before most fans are in their seats, but that MLS has no such mandate, meaning that after it is automated the roof could be opened shortly before soccer matches with fans watching the spectacle. “I want this roof to be not just this static thing that is either in the open or closed position when you enter the building,” Cannon said. “It is an iconic feature that is unique in the world, and it is in our city, in our building, and how cool would it be for (opening it) to become part of the show?” Waterproofing work also is continuing on the roof, which has leaked at times, including during pregame warm-ups for the college football national championship game Jan. 8. “We had so many workers working so hard to sprint to get ready for (the stadium’s opening in August) that there was some flashing, some materials, some caulking, some overlaps that weren’t perfect,” Cannon said. “Those connections are being redone, re-caulked, re-flashed and readdressed, and now every rain is another shakeout opportunity for us to chase if there’s another leak. “We’ve managed to take what was a larger number of leaks and shrunk it down to a very, very small number. And that work will continue until we’ve got it done.” This weekend’s weather could again test the waterproofing. Cannon also addressed the stadium’s egress issues, which have drawn complaints at some events. He said extensive review of stadium video revealed two “pinch points,” both on the 100-level concourse, causing the congestion as fans leave the stadium: one near the display of Georgia high school football helmets and another near the Terrapin Bar. He said a series of “big and small” changes have been made, including installing additional doors on the east end, removing a storage closet near the helmet display to add concourse width, using TV monitors to direct departing fans and taking two escalators out of service after events to avoid delivering more fans into the congestion at the pinch points. “To put egress topics in context, 1.8 million people have attended 30-plus events, and we had a No. 1 ranking (in an NFL fan survey) in safety and security,” Cannon said. AMB Group has selected an outside consultant, which it hasn’t named publicly, to evaluate the stadium’s egress issue. The consultant will “look at everything that has been done and look at ways to make additional improvements,” Cannon said.

Quoting myself, I was not serious here or in other thread - but was trying to make the point that things this obvious to outsiders about the poor planning and play calling really causes me to lose any faith or optimism about our offensive staff and Quinn's ability to fix things on that side of the ball. It does appear that they are getting the message loud and clear that things need improving.

As I said in the other thread, someone with insider access needs to send this and similar links to Blank, TD, Quinn, Sark.

Can someone send this link to Blank, TD, Quinn, and any members of the offensive staff still here?

Go Falcons! (What a nerve wracking season this has been so far.) Onward!

I re-watched last week's game this week, and that game was closer than it appeared by the score. A few of our pass defense plays would have interference in regular season, they dropped an easy 4th down pass, some of our 3rd down completions in key drives were very nearly defended, and Ryan could have been lost for the season on that slip and crumple on the bad turf. So I hope we play our best game of the season and score more touchdowns today - the FG game will be affected by cold and wind.

Here's where Ryan throws a pick 6 sideline route.

I have missed some pages in this thread, but he got clearly interfered with in the end-zone on two potential touchdowns last game. The officials don't call it fairly with him, and Quinn does not argue/lobby the refs enough (it seems) for him and Falcons to get a fair call at or in the end zone. I doubt that changes today, either.

I re-watched last week's game and Julio was blatantly interfered with twice in the end zone. Coach needs to get in the refs ears about that, he gets cheated by the no-calls almost every week. If you add up 2 of those plus at least one long drop plus 3 bad throws from Ryan plus constant holding on our dline plus constantly bad special teams, we lost a lot of points last week. The 25 yard punt return with a minute left in game and the blocked FG were near disastrous.

****. Just realized while driving tomorrow I have to listen to the Saints team on Sirius. ****.

season going down drain maybe here

what he said ^ Go Falcons - keep season alive!

Is 10 days enough time for Coleman to de-concuss?

Team going to have to manufacture the energy, it's not coming from those corporate seats. Go Falcons- keep season hope alive!