Next year’s gubernatorial race is underway. And Arthur Blank is not gonna miss a chance to “do something for Atlanta.” And help himself, too, of course. We already have the Atlanta Symphony Headquarters $240-million-ego-trip and assorted other projects shaking the state’s moneytree, but this one is personal for Arthur.

He’s even willing to appear to spend $150 million of his own money on the Georgia Dome! It’s home to his football team, and he wants it duded up. You see, this white elephant publicity arena for Atlanta is over 10 years old! {Gasp!} It needs help, it needs expansion. Atlanta and the Falcons deserve better! They can’t get a Super Bowl in four years if the Dome doesn’t get this facelift. The future of Georgia is at stake !!! I use italics here to draw attention to intended sarcasm.

Here’s how the people of Georgia got “domed” to begin with. The Falcons wanted a new stadium about 1989, but the Smiths (they owned the Falcons) didn’t want to pay for it. Nor did Atlanta. Nor did Fulton County. As the 1990 Governor’s race heated up and Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller and legislators Roy Barnes (then State Senator) and Bubba McDonald (chairman of the House Appropriations Committee) headed for the primary, the plotting for the state to underwrite a new Falcon Football Field got underway.

There were dark rumors that the Falcons would leave Atlanta if they didn’t get a new playground. Atlanta was 'in the hunt' for the 1996 Olympics---which weren’t supposed to cost taxpayers anything---and a new stadium would help get the games to Atlanta. The extortion scam worked, a joint venture between Atlanta, Fulton County, The Falcons ( Rankin Smith), and the State of Georgia was hatched (with the state holding the bag, so to speak). To sell it as “a facility for all Georgia” (rather than a private athletic corporation to benefit Atlanta), it was named “The Georgia Dome.” And the Falcons were caged in Atlanta until 2020.

The Dome initially cost $214 million, but the bonds won’t be paid off until 2020, so the Dome will actually cost, well...um, in the $500,000,000 range. Hopefully, income from events, food, drink, parking and trinkets will at least cover debt service, operating expenses, salaries, and medical and retirement costs of the facility. But since it’s really Falcon Home Field, the Falcons get a guaranteed $4,000,000 each year (taken from all revenue, like rock concerts and other non-Falcon events), part of all profits over debt service and operating expenses, 70 percent of the first $2.8 million annual surplus, and half any money above that figure.

Besides that, the corporate suites---which Atlanta paid for but the state bought when the Dome was finished---have been farmed out to the Falcons, who are making money on them.

In exchange for the $150 million Blank will put up now, he wants a greater cut from revenues and a new contract to keep the Falcons in Atlanta forever, with the state ponying up whatever it takes to keep them there when the time comes. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Mr. Blank hopes to “recoup” the $150 mil . . .so it will really be more of a loan than “gift.”

We can expect Sonny, Mark and Cathy to sprint toward the goalpost in support of Arthur Blank’s proposal to get the state to pay the bill for his “vision,” followed by a thundering herd of state Senators and Representatives, all in search of corporate campaign contributions for 2006.

Well, the state should NOT be in the business of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on facilities to keep private athletic teams in Atlanta or anywhere else in Georgia. If the people of Atlanta and their local officials want to spend their resources that way, let them, but keep the taxpayers of Georgia out of it. This precept is the essence of Georgia vs. Downtown Atlanta.

Arthur Blank should follow the lead of some other team owners, and own his own stadium . The state of Georgia should sell him the Georgia Dome at a reasonable price. He could rename it Blank Dome, spend as much money as he wanted on it, get all the revenue it brings in, and we could all live more happily ever after.

Remember this item in 2006. If you forget, however, we will be here to remind you and all those candidates, too.