Twitter is taking flight in Atlanta, with expansion plans that include new offices in a high-profile technology hub.
The San Francisco-based social networking company (NYSE: TWTR) will lease about 8,000 square foot at Ponce City Market in Old Fourth Ward.
The $200 million ambitious mixed-use redevelopment that has attracted tech-brands MailChimp, athenahealth, Cardlytics and HowStuffWorks. Google is said to be scouting Ponce City Market for a new office.
The expansion will grow Twitter’s Atlanta sales and marketing teams to about 70 people, according to a source familiar with Twitter’s plans.
Twitter, for its part, isn’t chirping about its growth plans: “We have nothing to announce at this time,” a spokeswoman said.
The new office, scheduled to open in the summer, will include brand strategists, who help Fortune 500 enterprises such as The Home Depot and The Coca-Cola Co. craft marketing campaigns on the social networking site. Those campaigns are a major revenue stream for Twitter, which reported $361 million in third quarter sales.
“Across the landscape of $1 billion digital advertising businesses, we are the fastest growing business within that landscape,” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo told CNBC in October.
Twitter’s Atlanta growth — the company currently employs about 15 in a small office in Midtown’s Proscenium building — makes sense.
With its Fortune 500 brands, emerging tech scene and influential digital agencies, Atlanta is a “key hub” as Twitter positions itself to monetize its large user-base.
Twitter models itself more as a media property than a social network.
Twitter is trying to move from a unique, buzzy new platform that most Americans don’t fully understand, into a viable way for brands to leverage it for customer acquisition and engagement, and for monitoring real-time feedback and data trends, said Simms Jenkins, CEO of Atlanta-based BrightWave, a digital marketing agency.
Even the most successful NFL teams cannot control the quality of their product on the field. And in an era of free agency, it’s harder for teams to develop fan loyalty toward their best players. So more teams, even successful ones, have turned their stadiums into memorable experiences, where a team has more control over its own brand. In 2009, the Dallas Cowboys wowed fans with a new stadium that features the world’s largest column-free interior and (at the time) the biggest high-definition video screen in the world. In 2014, the San Francisco 49ers opened Levi’s Stadium, which features high-tech amenities such an app that allows you to order food from your seat. But the Atlanta Falcons are preparing to open one stadium to rule them all in 2017: a state-of-the-art extravaganza that may change the way we experience live sports.
In the 49-year existence of the Atlanta Falcons, the team has compiled a decidedly subpar record of 316 wins, 414 losses, and six ties. The team has won no Super Bowls and has fielded zero Most Valuable Players. The Falcons have been wildly inconsistent, capable of an impressive 13-win/3-loss season followed by a horrid 4-win/12-loss season, as was the case in 2012-13. But there is more to football than winning (and I don’t care how many ex-jocks in the broadcast booth say otherwise). Football teams want fans to have fun, and the New Atlanta Stadium (whose title will certainly change when a corporate sponsor is found) is designed to provide fun in spades.
For starters, the new building is going to be an architectural marvel that Atlanta visitors and residents will visit and tour in the off-season. Most football stadiums, however well designed, look like, well, football stadiums. You always know one when you see one. But New Atlanta Stadium isn’t any ordinary football stadium. New Atlanta Stadium is designed to be a visually stunning building where football games happen to be played.
The dramatic glass-and-steel exterior, which as been described as a gigantic metal origami, evokes the creations of Frank Gehry and Jørn Utzon (who designed the Sydney Opera House). Lead designer is Bill Johnson, a principal at Kansas City-based 360 Architecture (recently acquired by HOK), designed eight ocular shaped panels on the roof as an homage to the Roman Pantheon. According to 360 Architecture, the roof will “open and close like a camera aperture.” Moreover, the shape of the roof panels are will emulate the wing-like Atlanta Falcons team logo.
The retractable roof and overall stadium design have already caught the eye of publications such as Architecture News Daily and DesignBoom, which raved about the “striking structure.” Now, let me ask you: when is the last time a retractable roof generated this kind of reaction? I predict that the look of the stadium alone will inspire other architects to rethink the design of football stadiums, just as Oriole Park at Camden Yards reimagined the look of Major League Baseball Parks in the 1990s.
But there is more to New Atlanta Stadium than the dramatic first impression it leaves. The stadium may have its greatest impact on the future of stadium design in the way it promises to combine the excitement of live action with the comforts of home viewing. One side of the stadium will include a massive floor-to-ceiling window with a view of Atlanta, which will add to the ambience of the event, reminding fans that they are at a football game, not cocooned in their homes.
The retractable roof will obviously bring the outdoor elements into the game. An exterior fan plaza, located on the northeast side of the stadium, will act as a sort of meeting point and an outdoor venue to watch entertainment before or after the game (and, presumably, take a break from those games that the Falcons lose miserably).
The centerpiece of the staidum will be the 360-degree high-definition “halo” video board – a five-story board that will be the largest high-def video board in the world.
If somehow you miss the action on the 63-foot tall high-def screen, the stadium will broadcast the action (and God knows how much advertising) on a video column and on strategically placed smaller screens amid the seats.
To accommodate the multi-tasking fan, the stadium will provide a Technology Lounge. According to the New Atlanta Stadium website, “The Technology Lounge offers access to unique game-day media content and full NFL immersion. Avid football fans and tech junkies unite. This is a unique space for fans to track their Fantasy Football teams while staying engaged with the game on the field.” (But will fans in their seats get free WiFi?)
The stadium is attempting to strike a delicate balance: meeting the needs of wired fans who can get high-def experiences in their own homes, while giving them a reason to leave their living rooms and shell out money for the you-are-there experience.
Like most other stadiums, New Atlanta Stadium will offer club seating and suites — and it will set you back as much as $45,000 to reserve one of the best seats in the house.
But if you lack the dough for the fancy seats, and you want a clubby experience, a 100-yard-long bar on the upper concourse will be open to the hoi polloi.
Sounds pretty cool, right? But as the San Francisco 49ers recently discovered, even the most well conceived stadiums experience some glitches. The venerable 49ers, one of the most successful NFL franchises, relocated to San Mateo to play their home games in Levi’s Stadium, which opened in July 2014. The $1.2 billion venue boasted state-of-the-art, high-tech amenities.
But things did not turn out as planned. When the stadium opened, a number of problems quickly surfaced, including unreliable WiFi, shoddy turf, clogged transportation to and from the stadium, and unbearable heat. Ashlee Vance of Bloomberg BusinessWeek proclaimed the stadium a “dud.”
But as the NFL season progressed, the stadium started to grow on fans. They started to appreciate high-tech amenities such as a Levi’s Stadium app, which allows for paperless ticketing and the ability to search for the shortest food lines in the stadium. They adapted to the heat by protecting themselves with hats and sunscreen (Candlestick Park, the former home of the 49ers, had conditioned fans for a completely different experience — so they just needed to change their habits). Managing the crowds streaming out of the stadium remains a challenge, but Levi’s Stadium and local police have made some tweaks to improve the flow of traffic. Fans seem to like the stadium overall months after its opening, giving it an 85-percent approval rate on TripAdvisor.
It turns out that fans needed time to accept the stadium’s imperfections and to appreciate its benefits, and the stadium needed to work harder at being a better neighbor — two lessons that the New Atlanta Stadium is most certainly taking to heart as the Falcons prepare for opening day in 2017.
I predict that New Atlanta Stadium will create pressure for other NFL teams to raise the bar for the viewing experience. Football stadiums are going to offer more perks that have nothing to do with watching the game on the field, such as high-end shopping featuring merchandise you can find nowhere else (akin to Disney), and more exclusive dining rooms with ambience to match the food. Of course, high tech will get better. Picture fans playing Madden NFL in the stands, with teams synchronized to the on-field action. And for fans that want to get immersed in the games, picture this scenario: fans, using headphones rented from the stadium, listen to on-field action in surround-sound.
Watch closely how movie theaters change by adding perks such as reclining seats and comfortable dining at a more affordable price than a stadium offers. You can be sure sports teams are watching and learning. To paraphrase Marshal McLuhan, the experience is the message.
The longest winning streak in Atlanta professional sports history now belongs to… your Atlanta Hawks!
That’s right, not the Atlanta Braves, they won 15 in a row back in 2000.
Not the Atlanta Falcons, well, because they’ve never gone 15-1 or 16-0. They did win 9 in a row back in 1980.
But then finished 12-4.
That’s right, the Atlanta Hawks now have something no other professional team in this city can claim.
They’ve won 16 games in a row.
Let that sink in for a second.
This team is that damn good.
Winning 16 games in a row in any sport is extremely difficult to do. But look at who they’ve beaten! Teams from the mighty Western Conference.
Let’s break it down with a look at the teams and the scores:
Dec 27th | Hawks 90 – Bucks 85 (Bucks are #6 in the Eastern Conf)
Dec 30th | Hawks 109 – Cavaliers 101 (Cavs are #5 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 2nd | Hawks 98 – Jazz 92 (Jazz are #13 in the Western Conf)
Jan 3rd | Hawks 115 – Trail Blazers 107 (Trail Blazers are #3 in the Western Conf)
Jan 5th | Hawks 107 – Clippers 98 (Clippers are #4 in the Western Conf)
Jan 7th | Hawks 96 – Grizzlies 86 (Grizzlies are #2 in the Western Conf)
Jan 9th | Hawks 106 – Pistons 103 (Pistons are #10 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 11th | Hawks 120 – Wizards 89 (Wizards are #3 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 13th | Hawks 105 – 76ers 87 (76ers are #14 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 14th | Hawks 105 – Celtics 91 (Celtics are #11 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 16th | Hawks 110 – Raptors 89 (Raptors are #2 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 17th | Hawks 107 – Bulls 99 (Bulls are #4 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 19th | Hawks 93 – Pistons 82 (Pistons are #10 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 21st | Hawks 110 – Pacers 91 (Pacers are #12 in the Eastern Conf)
Jan 23rd | Hawks 103 – Thunder 93 (Thunder are #10 in the Western Conf)
Jan 25th | Hawks 112 – T’Wolves 100 (T’Wolves are #15 in the Western Conf)
So in this last run of 16 consecutive wins, the Hawks have beaten both the second, third and fourth ranked teams in the mighty Western Conference. They’ve also beaten the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth ranked teams in the Eastern Conference.
This team is playing lights out. Defense is strong and swift. The offense is fast and scores furiously.
Tonight we witnessed the game from courtside and it was a thing of beauty. We did our best to entertain the crowd with our on the court antics during every time out and in between quarters and halves, but during the rest of the game we were watching some amazing basketball up close and personal. We’ve watched like everyone else from up high and on TV, but seeing this team play the way they did from only a few feet away was amazing.
Watching them earn the longest winning streak in Atlanta professional sports history was incredible. Looking up at that sell out crowd on a Sunday night and hearing and seeing them explode every time Korver or Millsap hit a three and at the end of the game when the streak continued… well, that was something none of us will ever forget.
Go Hawks!
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