Local residents react to proposed Falcons' personal seat license - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

Some of the financing for a proposed new stadium in Atlanta would come from personal seat licenses.

The proposal, which would lead to the demolition of the Georgia Dome, would be paid for with about $300 million from the city's hotel/motel tax while the Atlanta Falcons would pay the other $700 million, of which about $100 million would come from the seat licenses.

The Falcons organization says personal seat licenses are a common source of financing for modern-day stadiums; more than half of the teams in the NFL charge their fans a PSL fee.

While some football fans in Atlanta may accept it, others say they just can't afford it.

Local radio host John Kincade of "The Buck and Kincade show" on 680 the Fan says the Falcons better produce in the postseason if they want to sell personal seat licenses to its fans.

"It's the perfect time to start floating it out there to say, ‘Look, you're going to be paying a fee, a PSL, just to be able to buy your tickets.' That goes over much better if this franchise starts producing playoff wins and maybe even a trip to the Super Bowl," Kincade said.

David Gay has been a Falcons season ticket holder for more than two decades, but that could change if the team starts charges a fee to purchase season tickets,

"Then that's going to be even more that we have to come up with and we'll probably wound up losing our season tickets," Gay said.

Other football fans say they would rather pay more to watch a Falcons game than higher taxes.

"I might attend one or two a year. So, I'd rather pay a little bit more of a premium then than have to foot the bill with my tax money," said Brookes Stephens.

Some believe that in the end, Falcons fans will accept the extra cost to purchase a ticket.

"No, it's not fair. But football fans are football fans, you know. They like the sport. So if you love the sport you'll do anything you need to keep it the way it is," said Felix Lloyd.

In a statement, Kim Shreckengost of the Falcons' parent group, The AMB Group LLC said, "We do not have a PSL program developed yet, but we do know that our approach to PSL pricing - as is our goal for ticket pricing - will be fair and inclusive. We anticipate total PSL sales to be well below that of recent new stadiums, but we cannot determine pricing until we know more about the stadium design."

The new retractable roof stadium would be built south of the Georgia Dome at Northside and MLK Drive, or just north at Northside and Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard. It would open in 2017 and would house the Falcons along with other sports, convention and entertainment events, according to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.