Falcons, Friendship Baptist Close To Stadium Deal

Tuesday the Falcons announced they were shifting their focus to another site north of the current Georgia Dome, saying the site to the south of the Dome, occupied by Friendship Baptist and Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, was unfeasible.

We will provide updates to this breaking news story as more information becomes available.

***

UPDATE 4:45 p.m. — The following is a transcript of part of our interview with Lloyd Hawk, the chair of the board of trustees of Friendship Baptist Church.  Mr. Hawk was interviewed by Denis O’Hayer:

LLOYD HAWK, FRIENDSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH:  “We made a lot of concessions, we’ve gotten some concessions from the city and the Falcons as well, so we think that it can be done.  And we’re going to continue our part to make all these little efforts to try to get one done.”

DENIS O’HAYER, WABE NEWS:  “Obviously negotiations are sensitive things, but is there anything you can say publicly now about either the concessions that you have made or the concessions the Falcons have made?”

HAWK:  “I think from our part it’s been a matter of us looking very, very closely on everything that’s going to be involved and having to relocate a 151-year-old church and its congregation . . . and so we’ve been able to – we think – get everything down to as reasonably as everyone can imagine, and so that can be done at a situation where the church does not have to incur any debt or use any of its savings in order to make this move happen for the Falcons.”

O’HAYER:  “Does that mean additional money either from the city or the Falcons, in addition to one of the figures that has been talked about is $24.5 million, which reportedly is what you had proposed?”

HAWK:  “I can tell you definitely . . . uh, much lower than that.”

O’HAYER:  “Can you say how much lower?”

HAWK:  [laughs] “No, I can’t – I don’t want to go into those details, but I can say, you know, we have been very reasonable and we have been very clear that our only concern is, you know, we’re a church, we’re not a for-profit entity.  Our only concern is that, as a trustee of the church, my fiduciary duty is to make sure that in a situation like this, the church does not get weakened by that transition.”

The full interview with Lloyd Hawk has been posted online here.

***

UPDATE 6:20 p.m. — While speaking with Lloyd Hawk of Friendship Baptist Church, Denis O’Hayer asked if he knew anything about the negotiations with Mount Vernon Baptist Church, the other church that would need to agree to move before the stadium could be built.  Mr. Hawk said that he had no information on the status of the negotiations with Mt. Vernon Baptist.