NEW YORK (WFAN) — Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has a flashy new stadium to help him get over the disappointment of watching his team lose Super Bowl LI.

The Queens native stopped by the WFAN studios Wednesday to chat with Mike Francesa.

“Obviously we didn’t end up where we wanted to,” Blank said. “Every team in the NFL wants to win the last game of the year, and we didn’t. And we had a commanding lead … and there are a lot of reasons you can debate as to what happened in the fourth quarter, but clearly it didn’t play out the way it should have played out at that point in the game. I think our players have learned from it. I think (coach Dan Quinn) … learned some things as well.”

The Falcons will move into Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season.



“We said, ‘OK, if we start with a clean sheet of paper, what is it we like about all the stadiums in the NFL?” Blank said. “What are the things we like, not just in Dallas, but elsewhere as well — and there are many things — or in other parts of the world — soccer complexes elsewhere, etc. — and how do we incorporate all of those things into this stadium?

The stadium will seat 71,000 for Falcons games, 75,000 when it hosts the Super Bowl in 2019 and 83,000 for major concerts and other sporting events.

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“The building’s a big building, and one of the reasons we wanted to do that is we wanted to have the kind of diversity in the building that represents the diversity in our community in Atlanta,” Blank said. “That was very important to us.”

Perhaps the main attraction is the stadium’s halo scoreboard — six stories high, 360 degrees around and 50 percent larger than the scoreboard at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. It also features a retractable roof that can open and close in seven minutes.

To listen to the interview, click on the audio player above.