PFJ3 - 6.1 Mercedes-Benz Stadium — FIFA Journal (2024)

• The key factor underpinning the construction of Mercedes-Benz Stadium was ensuring that fans could connect to it on an emotional level.

• Technology is inherent to the stadium’s strategy and creation to provide supporters with experiences designed to be awe-inspiring and to keep them coming back.

• Painstaking due diligence with stadium personnel around the world set Mercedes-Benz Stadium executives on a “adapt or avoid” path in order to create the optimum matchday experience.

The construct of a sports stadium can be awe-inspiring. But, looking past the cement, steel and glass, the ideals behind it can surpass even the most majestic of structures. For Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the key factor underpinning its stadium strategy was to evoke a certain feeling among the thousands of fans who visit the arena in its home in Atlanta, Georgia.

This mandate originated with Arthur Blank, cofounder of The Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, who is the sole owner of the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons and of Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Atlanta United.

When Mercedes-Benz Stadium was built in 2017, the intention was not only to serve as the home of its two teams, but also to be considered the premier venue for some of the biggest events from around the world, says Tim Zulawski, who leads all strategy, growth and management of revenue generation, sponsorship sales and service for the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Entering into a public-private partnership with the state government of Georgia, the transformation to Mercedes-Benz Stadium took about a decade at a cost of USD 1.6 billion for construction. AMB Sports + Entertainment holds all of the operating rights and responsibilities and works collaboratively with the state, meeting regularly with its oversight board. As such, the company receives all of the operating profits and nets any positive return or incurs any operating losses as it bears the risk of all of the operational expense.

Corporate sponsorship sales serve to support revenue generation, which helps to pay down any debt the stadium owes, says Zulawski. To date, Mercedes-Benz Stadium has secured USD 1 billion in contractual value, partly through its naming rights deal signed at an undisclosed value in 2015 for 27 years. There are a further ten founding partners, which include Coca-Cola and reputable international brands from different industries.

Corporate partners that support the stadium enjoy the benefits of large-scale advertising through a 70,000 square foot, integrated light-emitting diode digital canvas that houses displays in various shapes and sizes offering many partners timed brand exclusivity.

“Technology is inherent to the stadium, both in strategy and creation,” says Zulawski. Mercedes-Benz Stadium works with two major Fortune 1000 partners, which is integral to bringing the technological experience to life. This means many things, including constant free Wi-Fi connectivity, cashless registers, digital ticketing and a first in the stadium world: a 60,000-square-foot, 360-degree Halo video board that is suspended from a retractable roof and designed to provideall fans with a close-rangeandaugmented experience.

Affordable food and beverage pricing structures were also designed for the stadium. “We have street pricing, which can be a USD 2 bottle of water, a USD 2 Coca-Cola or a USD 5 draft beer,” he says. “You can have hundreds of combinations with a family of four who end up spending USD 30 at our stadium. Our focus was to make the food a part of the experience.”

It is the fan experience that continues to drive strategy. Zulawski points to the stadium’s previous windowless venue, which did not really give stadium-goers a sense of where they were. “We were hyper-focused on building windows to the city, so when you are consuming an event at the stadium, you know you are in Atlanta because you can look to the right and see the whole city skyline,” he says.

The executive team at Mercedes-Benz Stadium took on painstaking due diligence to significantly benchmark the building of the stadium by taking key learnings from around the globe on what people did and did not like, and then undertaking an adapt or avoid approach, says Zulawski.

The proof is in matchday attendance. Mercedes-Benz Stadium houses 42,500 seats using its lower two levels, a common configuration for football matches, but also has the flexibility to expand the football configuration to over 70,000. In 2017, it broke the MLS’s single-match attendance record, with a 71,874 attendees. In 2019, the average attendance across the season was around 53,000 and in March 2020, just before the pandemic hit, the stadium was at full capacity, at around the 72,000 mark. Post-pandemic, two Atlanta United matches in 2021 each had at least 40,000 people in attendance. But, a Mexico v. Honduras match in June, as a part of MexTour, hosted 70,000 people. “This was the largest crowd for soccer globally,” Zulawski points out.

“It’s all about value creation —and value creation for you,” says Zulawski. “All the unique attributes and features — everything was centred around how do we ‘wow' the fan of today, tomorrow and well into the future.”