Falcons president "pretty confident" Mercedes-Benz Stadium will open June 1st

According to the AJC, Falcons president and CEO, Rich McKay, told the media today the June 1, 2017 completion date set for Mercedes-Benz Stadium is still the target date.

"We're pretty confident in our timetable," McKay told reporters after a media tour of the stadium.

"We're working pretty confidently towards that date, and we feel very good about it. I would say that we've picked up the pace on steel. You see steel going up. We're in a pretty good place," he said.

McKay did make a concession, however, saying that while they feel good about June 1, it obviously does not account for something unforeseen.

Complications in the steel that would support the roof caused the first delay, pushing the previous March 1 completion date three months.

Earlier in the year, Blank mentioned the possibility of alternate home venues for Atlanta United. That seems unlikely now with a much more confident completion date.

Aside from the assurances about the deadline, McKay pointed out that Atlanta United may not be the first event held at The Benz.

"There is a very good chance Atlanta United opens the stadium and has the first event. That's probably what we think at this point in time. But...there are a couple of out-of-the-box ideas that have been brought to us that are really cool and would be neat for Atlanta and for a world-wide stage," he said.

We can only speculate at this point, but some ideas could be to have some kind of "Grand Opening Concert" of some kind, or maybe even a some kind of city fair. If the gods are good, maybe even an Outkast reunion, perhaps? Either way, this news is good news. Many feared the next news they'd hear regarding the stadium would be negative.